Enfilade

Thanks to Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell for noting via Twitter this exhibition. In addition to the general information from The Met, see coverage at D23. . .

Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10 December 2021 — 6 March 2022
The Wallace Collection, London, 6 April — 16 October 20222
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Garden, San Marino, 10 December 2022 — 27 March 2023

Curated by Wolf Burchard

Pink castles, talking sofas, and a prince transformed into a teapot: what sounds like fantasies from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ pioneering animations were in fact the figments of the colorful salons of Rococo Paris. The Met’s first-ever exhibition exploring the work of Walt Disney and the Walt Disney Animation Studios’ hand-drawn animation will examine Disney’s personal fascination with European art and the use of French motifs in his films and theme parks, drawing new parallels between the studios’ magical creations and their artistic models.

Sèvres Manufactory, pair of covered pots pourris vases in the form of towers (vases entourrés), ca. 1762; soft-paste porcelain (San Marino: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens).

Forty works of 18th-century European decorative arts and design—from tapestries and furniture to Boulle clocks and Sèvres porcelain—will be featured alongside 150 production artworks and works on paper from the Walt Disney Animation Research Library, Walt Disney Archives, Walt Disney Imagineering Collection, and The Walt Disney Family Museum. Selected film footage illustrating the extraordinary technological and artistic developments of the studios during Disney’s lifetime and beyond will also be shown.

The exhibition will highlight references to European visual culture in Disney animated films, including nods to Gothic Revival architecture in Cinderella (1950), medieval influences on Sleeping Beauty (1959), and Rococo-inspired objects brought to life in Beauty and the Beast (1991). Marking the 30th anniversary of Beauty and the Beast’s animated theatrical release, the exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Wallace Collection. The catalogue is distributed by Yale University Press.

The press release is available here»

Wolf Burchard, Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2021), 240 pages, ISBN: ‎978-1588397416, $50.

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Note (added (9 December 2021) — The posting was updated to include information for the catalogue, London dates, and the link to the press release.

Note (added 6 June 2022) — The posting was updated to include The Huntington as a venue.