In keeping with the Museum’s long tradition of presenting animation, this is the most extensive gallery exhibition that MoMA has ever devoted to the genre. Featuring over 500 works of original art on loan for the first time from Pixar Animation Studios, the show includes paintings, concept art, sculptures, and an array of digital installations. These works reveal the intricate, hands-on processes behind Pixar’s computer-generated films—including Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, and numerous shorts. The exhibition also includes a complete retrospective of Pixar films. Demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between traditional and digital media pioneered by the studio over its twenty-year history, Pixar: 20 Years of Animation is a tribute to the artists whose work has reinvented the genre.
The Yoshiko and Akio Morita Gallery features the world premiere of two media pieces that embody the intersection of art and science that distinguishes computer animation. Artscape, a widescreen projection created by artist/director Andrew Jimenez and sound designer Gary Rydstrom, invites viewers to experience, in the context of a digital installation, much of the handcrafted art shown elsewhere in the exhibition. Zoetrope is a dynamic installation, modeled on pre-cinema technology, which rotates character sculptures under a strobe light to simulate continuous motion.
Organized by Steven Higgins, Curator, and Ronald S. Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, with Jenny He, Research Assistant, Department of Film and Media.
