Pixar Exhibition, "25 Years Of Animation" in Paris

I went to see with my family the exhibition on Pixar at the newly opened Art Ludique Museum (the first museum dedicated to the art of entertainment) in Paris — France.

Art Ludique Museum

The Pixar exhibition was the first one in the museum, but this touring exhibition was inaugurated at the MoMA in New York in 2006.

This exhibition is very popular, hence the long queue. So, first recommendation: if you can, plan ahead and buy the tickets online.

Strictly no pictures inside the exhibition because of copyright issues.

One of the posters advertising in the exhibition in the Paris Metro

The exhibition contains over 500 drawings: storyboards, character studies and background sketches, digital paintings, as well as resin sculptures.

My impressions from the exhibition:

• I had forgotten how many great movies Pixar has made over the year.
• It’s interesting to discover how much low-tech, traditional art goes into making the Pixar animation movies, from initial sketches to storyboards.
• All techniques are welcome: pencil, ink pens, charcoal, markers, acrylic paint, oil paint, soft pastel, digital paintings (which are sometimes hard to distinguish from traditional paintings) and collage.
• It is hard to pick favourite pieces, but some of the small pastel paintings for “Cars” and “Finding Nemo” are really beautiful; the resin sculptures are also really good; and the collage are inspiring.
• I found fascinating to see the preliminary studies for the characters and how they evolved towards their final forms. It is also good to see differrent takes on the characters by different artists.

Pixar’s philosophy is that, to have a successful animaiton movie, you need 3 equally important elements: A good story, memorable characters, and a universe.

Have a look at the videos around the exhibition http://artludique.com/video2.html

Exhibition details

PIXAR, 25 YEARS OF

16th November 2013 - 2nd March 2014.

Art Ludique Museum

34, quai d'Austerlitz, 75 013 Paris – France

http://artludique.com/index2.php

Related resources

Presentation of the exhibition on Pixar’s website 

MoMa page for the 2006 Exhibition with good videos 

If you cannot see the embedded video above , click on this link: John Lasseter - The golden rules for a great film (YouTube video)

The companion book for the Pixar exhibition

• If you are in the US (Amazon affiliate link):

The Art of Pixar: 25th Anniv.: The Complete Color Scripts and Select Art from 25 Years of Animation

• If you are in the United Kingdom (Amazon affiliate link):

Art of Pixar: 25th Anniv hc: The Complete Color Scripts and Select Art from 25 Years of Animation