Dates： 2009/12/8 - 2010/03/07
The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts is the most important art organization in southern Taiwan. Based on its professional mission, the museum has consistently worked to further its role of displaying, educating, and encouraging academic study, while serving as a platform for interchange and allowing members of the public to expand their international perspectives. Although the museum has conducted numerous international exhibitions for the benefit of the public, and these exhibitions have encompassed all schools of art—including Eastern, Western, contemporary, avant-garde, traditional, and classical—they have inevitably been limited by the constraints of the categories of the fine arts. During the most recent decade, mainstream international art organizations have paid increasing attention to art-related professions, and have variously embarked on policies of integration and interdisciplinary development with regard to their exhibitions and operating strategies. Located in globally-minded Kaohsiung, the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts has given thought to this international trend in all its plans and projects since the beginning of this year. The Pixar: 20 Years of Animation exhibition is a concrete example of the museum's embrace of evolutionary interdisciplinary thinking.
Computer animation entered a period of increasing maturity from the 1970s to the 1980s, and the improved coloring and shading, modeling algorithms, and presence and practicality of computer drawing set off a surge of interest in computer animation. The current integration of digital art and computer multimedia has led to new forms and concepts of artistic expression that contrast sharply with traditional notions. The convergence of animation and movies has gradually evolved from a flashy gimmick to a very popular entertainment form. Assisted by digital media, animated movies can transform images that once existed only in dreams into reality, yielding astonishing economic efficiency.
In 1995, Toy Story introduced us to a new form of animated film – 3D animation. Using computer technology, it broke beyond the limits of two-dimensional space, creating a three-dimensional virtual world. And the ones to bring us this astonishing revolution were none other than Pixar Animation Studios. Pixar created the miracle of 3D animation, attaining a sense of space and a tactile quality that traditional 2D animation lacked.
Pixar’s animators never call themselves computer engineers or designers, but artists, who insist that the whole process of 3D animation, from concept to completed work, is a form of artistic creation. As the painted drafts, concepts, sculptures and digital installations in Pixar: 20 Years of Animation readily demonstrate, refined detail and a process of substantial creative effort are what lie behind computer animation creation.
California, United States. To date, the studio has earned twenty-four Academy Awards, six Golden Globes, and three Grammys, among many other awards, acknowledgments and achievements and has made $5.5 billion worldwide. It is one of the most critically acclaimed film studios of all time. It is best known for its CGI-animated feature films which are created with PhotoRealistic RenderMan, its own implementation of the industry-standard Renderman image-rendering API used to generate high-quality images.
Pixar started in 1979 as the Graphics Group, a part of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm before it was bought by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986. The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006.
Pixar has made 10 feature films beginning with Toy Story in 1995 and each one has achieved critical and commercial success. Pixar followed Toy Story with A Bug's Life in 1998, Toy Story 2 in 1999, Monsters, Inc. in 2001, Finding Nemo in 2003 (which is, to date, the most commercially successful Pixar film, grossing over $800 million worldwide), The Incredibles in 2004, Cars in 2006, Ratatouille in 2007, WALL-E in 2008, and Up in 2009 (the first Pixar film presented in Disney Digital 3-D). Pixar's eleventh film, Toy Story 3, is scheduled for release on June 18, 2010, with Cars 2 to be released in Summer 2011 and Monsters, Inc. 2 scheduled for Winter 2012.
All seven Pixar films released since the inauguration of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001 have been nominated for the award. Five have won it: Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up. Up is the first Pixar film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
On September 6, 2009, executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich were officially handed the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the Biennale Venice Film Festival. The award was presented by Lucasfilm founder George Lucas.
Pixar: 20 Years of Animation is to be on view from August 7th through November 1st in 1A, 1B Gallery. For more information, please go to the Museum web-site at http://www.tfam.museum/20_News/News_List.aspx?MessageID=161
Source and Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (高雄市立美術館)
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