The international traveling exhibition “Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts” explores the early inspirations behind Disney Studios’ creations, examining Walt Disney’s fascination with European art and the use of French motifs in Disney films and theme parks.
Approximately 50 works of 18th-century European decorative art and design, many of which are drawn from The Huntington’s significant collection, are featured alongside hand-drawn production artworks and works on paper from the Walt Disney Animation Research Library, Walt Disney Archives, Walt Disney Imagineering Collection, and The Walt Disney Family Museum.
Melinda McCurdy received her Ph.D. in art history from the University of California, Santa Barbara. As a curator in the Huntington’s Art Museum, she organizes exhibitions and writes and lectures on historical British and European art from an interdisciplinary perspective, examining the political and social forces that shape visual culture of the past. Much of her work at The Huntington has focused on its world-renowned collection of eighteenth-century British portraiture, including Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy. McCurdy is a firm believer in the relevance of the Humanities beyond academia, and many of her projects emphasize the meanings and continuities of the historical in contemporary life.
$25 for ICAA members
$40 for Non-Members
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*Image attributed to Etienne-Maurice Falconet (French, 1716–1791), Sèvres Manufactory (French, founded 1740), Pair of tower vases with covers (vases en tour), ca. 1762. Soft-paste porcelain, overglaze pink and blue ground colors, polychrome enamel, and gilding, 20 1/2 x 9 x 9 inches (52.1 x 22.9 x 22.9 cm). The Arabella D. Huntington Memorial Collection, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
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