Pixar: 25 Years of Animation… (at OMCA)
… is the title of an exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) that I toured yesterday with two good friends. (The Oakland Museum of California is a museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located in Oakland.) One of the friends is a Pixar employee of over 10 years, and the other was just laid off from her high-tech job at age 49, as “American” businesses continue to “shoot themselves in the foot.”
Both of the women have Ph.D.’s in chemistry! (Yeah, I have some very smart friends!)
I really LOVED the exhibit! (And the museum… more about both below….)
“Walt Disney’s arrival in Los Angeles in the 1920s firmly established California as a magnet for animation artists in the decades to come. Home to a number of leading studios, the San Francisco Bay Area has emerged as a global center for animation today. PIXAR: 25 Years of Animation provides an unprecedented look at the renowned Emeryville-based studio (located just a few miles from OMCA) and showcases the creative work behind its wildly successful computer animated films. After its opening in New York and its five-year international tour, the exhibition comes home to Oakland. The OMCA presentation includes all of the artwork from the original presentation at MOMA, plus art from Ratatouille, WALL•E, Up, and Pixar’s latest film, Toy Story 3.”
You can read even more about the exhibit in the Press Release!
The Press Release starts out this way:
“OAKLAND, CA, April 21, 2010-The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) will present PIXAR: 25 Years of Animation, a major exhibition of over 500 works by the artists at Pixar Animation Studios, including drawings, paintings, and sculptures that illustrate the creative process and craftsmanship behind Pixar’s wildly successful computer-animated films. This will be a significantly enhanced presentation of the exhibition, which is returning home to Oakland after a successful worldwide tour that began at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2005. A number of significant works will be on public display for the first time, including art from Ratatouille, WALL•E, Up, and Pixar’s latest feature film, Toy Story 3. PIXAR will also include an updated, awe-inspiring version of the Pixar Artscape, a widescreen media installation. On view from July 31, 2010 through January 9, 2011, the exhibition will be accompanied by screenings of Pixar’s feature and short films; a special program of lectures, talks and workshops with Pixar artists; and a new and expanded exhibition catalogue.”
You can see 14 photos from the exhibit, here!
OK, what did I love? Pretty much, EVERYTHING! 
I loved the 2D and electronic artwork, the sculpture (Oh yes! Sculpture is used in the making of Pixar’s films – something that I learned a long time ago with tours of Pixar Animation, itself.), a widescreen presentation (I estimate 10 feet high by about 30 feet wide), Pixar shorts, and especially the zoetrope! (The artist in me likes to have his brain fooled, and the scientist in me likes to understand “why?”) Since I was there with two other scientists who also have worked in software, we were all mesmerized! This particular zoetrope is a rotating horizontal disk with a diameter of about 8-10 feet with 3D art, illuminated with either continuous light or stroboscopic banks of LEDs! I will not give away any more information about the zoetrope, but I will congratulate its makers at Pixar (and urge everyone else to see it)!
What did I learn that was new to me? I learned about color scripts, the predominant color scheme used in lighting a particular portion of the “film” and how that color scheme changes throughout the film. I will never view Pixar movies in quite the same way again!
See the exhibit if you possibly can! It runs through January 9, 2011.
Since this was the first visit to the museum for all of us, we wanted to tour the “California” exhibits as well. We were not disappointed! Both the Pixar exhibit and the California exhibit are “kid-friendly,” and the both offer children (of all ages) opportunities for “hands-on” learning. The treasures of the California side of the museum range from vehicles, to historical artifacts, to movies. The California exhibit has a timeline down one linear hallway, allowing visitors to “time travel” and pop in and out of various “epochs” of California history. The museum also allows nonlinear exploration by interconnecting paths through the exhibits.
The museum grounds offer both mobile and stationary sculpture, and grassy spaces to just relax!
Go there! It’s fun!
-Bill at
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