Memory: Tyrus Wong at the Disney Museum, 2014

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Here’s another entry in my ongoing project to rescue exhibit information from my old blog. Today I’m looking at images from Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong at the Disney Family Museum (August 15, 2013 - February 3, 2014).

Wong had a fascinating career. At the time of this exhibit he was still with us. He was 103 and still actively creating beautiful work. This wide-ranging exhibit showed over 150 works by Wong, including a display of handmade kites, which were his passion in his later years.

The exhibit begins with the story of his immigration from China through Angel Island as a child, and what a trial it was, and establishes how he found a balance between Chinese ideas of form and perspective and Western methods of portraying a scene. These ideas are evident in his best-known work, the concept art for Disney's 1940's masterpiece Bambi. In a video, Wong talks about the contrast between the mists and the need for distance in Chinese painting, where Western painting tends to feature the main subject front and center. His atmospheric paintings really set the tone for Bambi, and made it the work of art it is.

Wong was laid off at Disney following an acrimonious labor dispute and strike, eventually working again as a storyboard artist for Warner Brothers TV. He also designed scarves, dishware, greeting cards, and ceramic tiles. His post-retirement watercolors are lovely and moody, showing his isolation as he dealt with that transition in his life. Then he discovered kite making, which he does in a precise traditional manner. He was still making kites and participating in kite events, particularly at Venice Beach in Southern California at the time of this exhibit. Wong's kites looked beautiful hanging from the beams of the open ceiling of the gallery. The mezzanine was ringed with photos of the kites in the air and celebratory quotes from other animators that have found inspiration in Wong's work.

There’s an article about this show on Cartoon Brew with a good slideshow. Here’s another from the Chinese Historical Society of America. Wong passed away at 106 in 2016. Here are tributes from the Disney and Hammer museums.

SDCC 23 Panel Photos

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Memory: Eisner Retrospective at Rio Comiccon 2012

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Continuing my effort to rescue exhibition information from my old blog, I present a photoset from the massive 2012 exhibition The Living Spirit of Will Eisner at Rio Comicon (Rio de Janeiro), co-curated by the Brazilian filmmaker Marisa Furtado and Denis Kitchen. After Comicon the show moved to the Centro Cultural São Paulo (November-December). It featured 107 works by Will Eisner, plus a unique bronze sculpture of The Spirit, sketchbooks, publications, a special section focusing on The Plot, and other materials related to Eisner's life and long career. Photos by Stacey Pollard Kitchen.

Memory: Pretty in Ink at Cartoon Art Museum 2014

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Trina Robbins discusses the fine points of a page by Grace Drayton from her collection at the Pretty in Ink exhibition, as Cartoon Art Museum’s executive director Summerlea Kashar looks on.

Today I’m rescuing another great exhibit from my old blog: Trina Robbins’s Pretty in Ink at the Cartoon Art Museum’s 655 Mission Street space in 2014. These photos were taken at a reception/curator talk on July 31. The exhibit showcased pieces from the collection of comics Herstorian Trina Robbins, some of which we showed again years later at the Society of Illustrators. On view were works by female cartoonists working in the early 20th century, including pieces from Ethel Hays, Edwina Dumm, Nell Brinkley, Ramona Fradon, and Lily Renée. The exhibit also includes fan art, rare photos, and other memorabilia. Trina also signed copies of her Fantagraphics book, Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013.

Trina Robbins pointing out highlights in the career of the flapper age cartoonist Nell Brinkley.

Robbins was invited by Malcolm Whyte to join his first Advisory Board when he founded the museum in the 80s and she has had many exhibits since then. Her most recent shows have focused on the subjects of her books, like Nell Brinkley and the Flapper Era, or her long connection with the DC comics icon Wonder Woman. In 2019, she showed work from her collection aimed at teenage girls, including pages from Archie, paper dolls, and work from her own 90s titles for Eclipse Comics Go Girl! and California Girls.

Trina Robbins talks about Teen Comics from her collection with sydney phillips, fashionista and romance comics specialist. This exhibit was at the Cartoon Art Museum’s current gallery at 781 BeacH Street in Fisherman’s wharf.