MoMA To Present ‘From Doodles To Pixels,’ An 8-Part Retrospective on Spanish Animation

By Amid Amidi | 09/01/2016 7:33 pm | 2 Comments

September is shaping up to be a major month for animation at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Not only will Richard Williams make a rare appearance for the New York debut of The Thief and the Cobbler: A Moment in Time, but the museum will host the Spanish animation retrospective “From Doodles to Pixels: Over a Hundred Years of Spanish Animation” from September 7 through 15.

Organized by Spain’s preeminent animation historian Carolina López Caballero, the eight-part screening series is essentially a crash-course in Spanish animation achievements, past and present, taking advantage of new scholarship and restoration initiatives organized by the Contemporary Culture Center of Barcelona and Acción Cultural Española.

The series, which premiered at the Annecy animation festival in 2015 and has been touring globally at museums and festival since, will be debuting in the United States for the first time, thanks to the efforts of MoMA film department curator Ron Magliozzi.

Both the art and industry of Spanish animation will be represented throughout the series, featuring “historic work from 1908 through the end of the dictatorship, in 1975; commercial animation created in the shadow of Hollywood; Europe’s first animated color feature, Garbancito de la Mancha (1945); and internationally celebrated 21st-century work inspired by personal cinema, music videos, and the graphic novel.”

This trailer offers a sense of the diversity of animation projects that will be shown:

Among the distinguished artists, designers, humorists, and studios whose work will be shown are K-Hito, Francisco Macián, Robert Balser, José Antonio Sistiaga, Isabel Herguera, Javier Mariscal, Mercedes Gaspar, Rodrigo Blaas, Anna Solanas, César Díaz Meléndez , Nicolai Troshinky, Jossie Malis, Laura Ginès, Alberto Vázquez, Estudios Moro, Balet y Blay, and the Headless Studio.

López will introduce some of the MoMA screenings herself, and other Spanish animators are scheduled to introduce other screenings, including Anna Solanas, Rodrigo Blaas, and Alberto Vázquez. For a complete list of films that will be shown, screening days and time, and ticket information, visit the MoMA website.

"La bronca" ("The Scolding"). Unknown director, 1917. — “La bronca” (“The Scolding”). Unknown director, 1917.

Radio RCA. directed by Enrique Ferrán, ca. 1935.

Estudios Moro commercial, ca. late-1950s.

"El sombrero" ("The Hat") directed by Robert Balser, 1964. — “El sombrero” (“The Hat”) directed by Robert Balser, 1964.

"El mago de los sueños" ("The Wizard of Dreams") directed by Francisco Macián, 1966. — “El mago de los sueños” (“The Wizard of Dreams”) directed by Francisco Macián, 1966.

"Minotauromaquia: Pablo en el Laberinto" ("Minotauromachy: Pablo in the Labyrinth") directed by Juan Pablo Etcheverry, 2004. — “Minotauromaquia: Pablo en el Laberinto” (“Minotauromachy: Pablo in the Labyrinth”) directed by Juan Pablo Etcheverry, 2004.

"Sangre de Unicornio" ("Unicorn Blood") directed by Alberto Vázquez, 2013. — “Sangre de Unicornio” (“Unicorn Blood”) directed by Alberto Vázquez, 2013.

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