SEVILLE.- In its cultural programmes, ”la Caixa” Foundation focuses particularly on forms of artistic expression that have played a key role in shaping the contemporary sensibility. This line of action has given fruit in the shape of exhibitions devoted to the world of film, which, with photography, is the among the most characteristic genres in twentieth-century art.

The Foundation has devoted major retrospectives to such great names in the world of cinema as the directors Charles Chaplin, Federico Fellini and Georges Méliès. Other initiatives include collective projects like The Cinema Effect. Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image and Art and Cinema. 120 Years of Exchanges, which explored the links between the cinematic art and the fine and visual arts.

Particularly outstanding in this firmly-established line of programming linked to the world of film was the Foundation’s first show devoted to the art of animation. Organised in 2014 and 2015, this was Pixar 25 Years of Animation, an in-depth review of the work of a studio that became a pioneer in its use of technology to create animated movies.

Now, ”la Caixa” Foundation takes another step forward with this new project, launched in cooperation with the Walt Disney Animation Research Library. Disney Art of Storytelling takes us on a visual journey through the creative history of the American studio from the 1930s to more recent times, with particular emphasis on the literary origins of its stories and the updated versions of them that successive Disney creative teams have created. All this, presented in a surprising setting that makes visitors the protagonists of their own adventure as they wander among castles, woods and cabins.

This travelling show comes to Spain after presentations in Sweden (Nordic Watercolour Museum, Skärjamn) and Denmark (Brandts Museum of Art and Visual Culture, Odense).

Narrating in words and images
Since time immemorial, the art of storytelling has played a vital role in the history of humanity. Stories embody shared experiences and lessons learnt, fictions and dreams that have become guiding narratives woven into our cultural and social fabric. Since its arrival in the twentieth century, the cinema has become the leading medium for telling stories.

Reflecting all this, many Disney animated films are based on well-known myths, fables, legends, the “tall tales” of North American folklore, and fairy tales. In reworking these classics into film, Walt Disney and his successive creative teams have synthesised versions of stories from all times, modernising them to make them more accessible and adapting them to today’s audiences.

In this task, the company has always stood out for its constant quest for beauty and sensitivity, thereby turning animation and cinematographic narrative into a true art. The exhibit, Art of Storytelling, enables visitors to discover the creative skills of draftsmen and story artists and to appreciate their masterful use of a new language to present universal themes.

The result are movies that are aimed not only at children, but place traditional tales at the very centre of family and collective life.

An exhibition conceived as an adventure
Seeking to illustrate the process of adapting traditional stories to contemporary sensibilities, from the earliest films to the present, the Walt Disney Animation Research Library and ”la Caixa” Foundation conceived the exhibition itself as an adventure.

Art of Storytelling is structured into five sections. The exhibition begins at the original Disney studios, with its drawing tables, and a set that takes us back to the California of those days. From here on, the visitor becomes the protagonist, following an imaginary path: the cabin and the wood; the world of tall tales in which the final, decisive test takes place; and, finally, the castle, where Disney stories always have a happy ending.

The exhibition features a total of 212 pieces, including a large selection of drawings of characters and scenes created using various techniques – watercolour, charcoal, pastel, grease pencil, graphite, ink, tempera, acrylic, digital painting and so on. Other features include production notes, story sketches and pages from screenplays, which all help us to understand the methods that made it possible to create these animated classics. Finally, three short films are being shown, along with the 1939 documentary How Walt Disney Cartoons Are Made.