Pixar: 25 Years of Animation Exhibit Curator Elyse Klaidman Discusses New Exhibit at the Art Ledique

The Pixar: 25 Years of Animation Exhibit is continuing its worldwide tour showcasing various forms of Pixar artwork straight from the Pixar Animation archives. Guests will be in awe over the sketches, digital format prints, and sculptures that bring our favorite characters to life. The exhibit will feature various artwork spanning the Pixar film catalog.

Moving to Paris, France at the Art Ludique, a new museum that highlights work from comics, live-action, video games, and animation, the Pixar: 25 Years of Animation exhibit is proud to be their opening exhibit and will be on display from November 16, 2013, to March 2, 2014. Featuring over 500 original art pieces by over 40 different artists, you can even view a working Toy Story Zoetrope (similar to the one displayed at Disney’s California Adventure).

Animation Magazine recently had the opportunity to interview the exhibit curator and director of Pixar University and Archives, Elyse Klaidman. Below is just a snippet from that interview – to read the full details be sure to visit Animation Magazine.

Can you tell us a little bit about the exhibit? What can visitors expect to see at the exhibit? 

In our archive, we keep all artifacts that were part of the creation of the films, like drawings, paintings, sculptures, and collages. The archive is open so artists can delve back into learning for whatever they are doing. We often receive requests to get access to the archive from artists while working on current projects, for one of the different films.

The exhibit opens in Paris on November 16 at the Art Ludique center. Do you have any special plans to focus on Ratatouille?

We are not changing the current artwork. We are working with the museum on a little introduction section that centers on this film. The images will be used for publicity too.

The target audience for the exhibit is very broad, for children, their parents, and animation professionals. How did you work on a balance to make the show interesting for everybody?

We are lucky because people love Pixar and our films. We have a broad audience. While working on the exhibition we kept one thing clear in our mind. Our goal was to celebrate our art and artists. Our artwork itself can be amusing, funny and serious, and abstract. Many of our drawing are colorful, so they interest (little) children too.

What are the scheduled plans for 2014 and 2015? 

After Paris, in 2015 the exhibit will go to three different cities in Spain. The demand from that country is large to see the exhibition. For the time after May 2015 – which will coincide with the end of the Spanish run, we will have some exciting opportunities for other cities.

The Art Ludique website features some of the art that will be on display as well as a video by Chief Creative Officer, John Lasseter who explains a little about the exhibition and how it is broken into three different categories based on the order he says makes a great animated film.

“I believe that in order to make a really great animated film you have to do three things really well. 

Number One: Tell a compelling story that keeps people on the edge of their seat where they can’t wait to see what happens next. 

Number Two: Populate that story with really memorable and appealing characters. 

Number Three: Put those characters into that story in a believable world and when you do that the audience will be swept away and truly entertained”.

This is a rare opportunity to view this incredible art straight from the artist’s desk as well as masterful works from the Pixar archives and we really wish we were able to fly over to Paris, France, and visit this great exhibit. Please be sure to share your experience with us if you happen to attend this great opening exhibition at the Art Ludique.