Pictures and Picture Making: A Series of Lectures: by Jean Charlot for DIsney Studios [Frank Nastasi's Copy]

Charlot, Jean

Edité par NP, Los Angeles, 1938

A propos de cet article

Quarto. 183 individual single-sided mimeographed leaves + 22 additional leaves of photographic negative prints. Scarce mimeographed document printed from typescript, with all leaves and negatives three-hole punched along the left side, housed in modern black three-ring binder (11.5x 11"). The pagination throughout is only on a per lecture basis and is non-continuous. Printed pages with occasional manuscript corrections. The versos of most of the leaves throughout contain mounted small cutouts from b/w photographic prints either reproducing relevant images from art history, or being original technical hand-drawings by Charlot, serving as relevant illustrated figures on the rectos for the corresponding text pages opposite (275 in total). An additional thirteen of these images have been directly mimeographed onto the rectos. The 22 leaves of compiled photographic negatives found at the rear of the binder contain most of the same images seen throughout, and are organized according to lecture. In 1938 Walt Disney invited the French-born Mexican-American artist Jean Charlot (1898-1979) to deliver a series of eight lectures on art history and technique to the staff of the Disney Animation Studios over the course of two months, from April 12th - May 31st of that year. Though Charlot was adamant against having any kind of lecture plan, as he states in his opening remarks, each of the lectures were still always themed (Natural vision, composition, two-dimensional composition, color and subject, planes and space, etc.). Each was accompanied by a series of slides reproduced and mounted here, both of Charlot's original impromptu drawings and reproductions of historic works of art. Fortunately a stenographer or recording device was present and took down each lecture, including the questions and answers posed by his audience. This extremely scarce mimeographed binder serves as a complete and systematic documentation of those important and significant lectures. At the time of these lectures the company had just come off the massive and groundbreaking success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and was at work on the shorts "Mickey's Toothache" and the ultimately scrapped "Pluto's Robot Twin". Although there does not seem to be direct evidence or documentation pointing to the affect these lectures ultimately had on the future work of the studio, its diffuse influence can be surmised. At the very least, these in depth lectures provided a continued boost to the morale and confidence of the Disney staff, in placing the relatively new, and sometimes belittled art form of animated films on the vast continuum of the fine arts from prehistoric times, through classical antiquity, and until the present. This reassured the staff of their visual storytelling abilities and the relevance of their chosen work. These assertions have since been reinforced by the the fact that in the wake of these lectures a number of these animators stayed in contact with Charlot, and over the years since have asserted the personal impact these lectures had on their outlook. Although the discussions here range widely from all historical periods of art, incorporate examples from the relevant work of many of the most famous international figures, and touch upon countless technical and specific qualities of the fine arts, arguably the most significant and unique aspect the text is Charlot's discussions of art in Mexico, where he lived most of the time beginning in 1921. Specifically the art of Mexican murals and the work of Jose Guadeloupe Posada (nearly forgotten during this period), who had just recently died in 1913, were of interest to Charlot. It is known that he began buying Posada prints and the original printing blocks from Posada's print shop, reviving interest which has never abated. Though we could find no specific reference to Posada in any of his lectures, the speaker does incorporate Rivera's murals, noting in passing that "a man like Rivera has absolutely to.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Pictures and Picture Making: A Series of Lectures: by Jean Charlot for DIsney Studios [Frank Nastasi's Copy]
• Éditeur: NP, Los Angeles
• Date de parution: 1938
• Reliure: Ring_bound
• Édition: First edition.
• État de l'article: vg+
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Arts: Performing