New MoMA Exhibition Traces Animation History From ‘Gertie’ To MTV

New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is opening an expansive exhibition tracing a century of animation through original production artwork, films, and other materials from its collection.

According to MoMA, It’s Alive! A Century of Animation from the Collection will feature more than 200 works created between 1908 and 2020. The exhibition opens August 1 and will remain on view through summer 2027.

The show focuses on more than 35 artists and filmmakers, many of whom worked in New York before digital technology transformed animation production. Among the artists represented are Jane Aaron, John Canemaker, Sally Cruikshank, Tissa David, David Ehrlich, George Griffin, Emily and Faith Hubley, Candy Kugel, Jeff Scher, and Michael Sporn.

Highlights include an original drawing from Winsor McCay’s Gertie the Dinosaur; a cel from Cruikshank’s Quasi at the Quackadero; concept art from John Hubley’s Rooty Toot Toot; a pre-production drawing from Tissa David’s Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure; and artwork created for films by Kathy Rose, Faith Hubley, and Jane Aaron.

The exhibition will also include artifacts from Felix the Cat, Famous Studios, and MTV, as well as work by Lotte Reiniger and experimental filmmaker Hans Richter. The impressive and expansive collection documents animation’s development across commercial, independent, and avant-garde production over more than a century. There’s a little bit of everything.

A theatrical retrospective of animated shorts and features will run alongside the gallery exhibition. The program will include films by artists featured in the show as well as other animators represented in MoMA’s collection. Screening details have not yet been announced.

It’s Alive! was organized by curator Ron Magliozzi, curatorial associate Francisco Valente, senior collections manager Katie Trainor, and collections specialist Cara Shatzman.