Tag: animation

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Hayao Miyazaki 宮崎 駿, (1941)

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Yes, I am a very proud father who is writing this blog on Miyazaki. First of all Miyazaki is my favorite director of animation movies of all time. His movies are original, imaginative, recognizable and timeless and are far more contemporary than any Disney product from the last 40 years. Here is a director who translates stories into movies in a way that appeals to young and old.

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In december i learned that Netflix purchased the movies of the Ghibli studio for their streaming service and they were translating 20 of them for their foreign channels .

Lucas, my son who is a voice actor, was doing audition for one of them and was given the the main role of HAKU in “SPIRITED AWAY”.

Yesterday, on a rainy Sunday afternoon we saw the result and what already was one of my favorite Miyazaki movies, became my all time favorite animation movie. An excellent job he did with Haku and it made me proud and look forward to the rest of the Ghibli movies that will be released in the coming months.

http://www.ftn-books.com has some nice books on japanese anime in its inventory.

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A classic Christmas Card by Bill Hurtz, ca. 1940

This year a classic Christmas Card for all blog readers. It is a card by one of Walt Disney’s 1940 studio employees…Bill Hurtz. he made a true Disney “classic” with this card.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS,

wilfried

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William Kentridge (1955)

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The South African born William Kentridge is not the usual mediocre artist you may have heard of. His focus differs from others. His preferred medium is paper to make drawings, graphic art and animated films.

These animated films are truly impressive and strong animations filled with a messages that stay with you for a very long time once you have seen it.. They are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again. He continues this process meticulously, giving each change to the drawing a quarter of a second to two seconds’ screen time. A single drawing will be altered and filmed this way until the end of a scene. These palimpsest-like drawings are later displayed along with the films as finished pieces of art.

These animated films have become one of the pillars of his art, but that does not mean that his other works are not interesting. They are equally interesting but are perhaps a little less special than his animated films. One thing they share with the animeted films. They are filled with the “social injustice” Kentridge experienced through the decades in South Africa.

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Maria Lassnig ( 1919-2014 )

Tate Modern announced her last year show as follows….The first UK retrospective of one of the twentieth century’s most original painters… and she definitely is. The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam held a retrospective 23 years ago and she proved to be a highly original artist with a completely different approach to her subjects, sometimes very personal, making her own body the subject of a painting. Lassnig made informal paintings, abstract expressionist paintings was educated in and made animation art and showed her paintings during the Documenta which was curated by Rudi Fuchs in Kassel. During his first years of his directorship of the Stedelijk Museum, Fuchs invited her for a large retrospective in 1994 in the Stedelijk. More than 23 years before the Tate the STedelijk Museum recognized her qualities as an artist. Time after time i come to realize that the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is possibly the most trend setting museum in the world of Modern Art. The Maria Lassnig catalogue is available at www.ftn-books.com

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Sculpture 10 days… Day 9 ..Tom Otterness (1952)

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Can sculpture be fun too?….Yes it can. Look at the works by Tom Otterness. Comic like figures, tumbling, standing, cheering, next to eachother Executed in bronze or other materials these sculptures are to be enjoyed…this is great fun. There is on the seaside in Scheveningen Museum Beelden aan Zee and they have on the outside of the building a large complex work by Otterness. This is free to visit and a must see for every art tourist in Scheveningen.

For books on Otterness take a look at www.ftn-books.com ( only one copy available)

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Eadward Muybridge (1830-1904)

The importance of Muybridge is not the artistic way he made his photographs, but because he recognized that he could catalogue motion and movement by placing photographs in sequence. This find was important because in detail one could study all movements. From athletes to birds….everything was photographed ,recorded and placed in sequence, making this in the 19th century the reference guide for all movement. The quality of his studies and photographs is shown in this excellent animation

Conclusion must be that not only serious art lovers, but also directors and animators are tributary to Eadward Muybridge.

And of course www.ftn-books.com has some nice books available on the subject.

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Joost Swarte / VPRO and the Holland Animation Festival 2017

 

Because many of the readers live outside the Netherlands i can not withhold you the cover Joost Swarte made for the broadcasting association VPRO. Swarte is one of the house designers of the printed publicity outings of the Holland Animation festival and this 2017 edition is a very special one. The complete cover of the TV guide is published with a specially designed publicity drawing. Enjoy it and keep in mind that there are more nice Swarte items available at www.ftn-books.com

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Walt Disney in Art

Yesterday, the post on Wim Delvoye made me think about the influence Walt Disney had on art during the last 50 years. The influence must be extremely large because many of the great Modern artists from the last half century used Disney icons for their art. Wim Delvoye made me think about this relation because his signature is crafted after the original Walt Disney signature. But there is also Jeff Koons who uses Snow White and Mickey Mouse.

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The skull that is in the picture is a combination between 2 iconic elements in art. The skull by Damien Hirst and the ears of Mickey Mouse. Kitsch, art and a laugh combined in one work…..beautiful ;-). Andy Warhol began making silkscreened prints of Mickey Mouse , when he realized that beside the celebrities he used for his silkscreens he made in the factory, Mickey Mouse was such a celebrity too and needed to be depicted in a large silkscreen to honor him.

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Just about a year ago the art world was surprised with a complete new amusement park. Dismaland…. a Disney inspired park by the famous Banksy in which he uses Disney themes and make these his own by making his own interpretation on these classic Disney themes and gives comments on the world around him.

Finally Keith Haring…..Haring uses the Mickey Mouse ears almost every time he makes a selfportrait. Showing that his art is rooted within the comic art of Walt Disney….great art by great artists and all inspired by the master of animation and comics…Walt Disney.

 

 

wilfried / www. ftn-books.com