Reimagining the Cel: Experiments in Animation from the 1980s

Please note: As part of the worldwide effort to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, the Museum building is temporarily closed and all exhibitions and programs suspended until further notice.

Reimagining the Cel: Experiments in Animation from the 1980s brings together three films made in the decade preceding digital animation’s industry dominance. The program demonstrates how experimental filmmakers exploited the limitless creative possibilities offered by cel animation, developing new methods of expression through looping and layering sequences of painted images. Using space, rhythm, color, and shapes, these filmmakers pointed towards a field of experimentation that would later be popularized by digital filmmakers.

Karin Wiertz and Jacques Verbeek (b. 1946 and b. 1947, Netherlands)

The Case of the Spiral Staircase, 1981

Cel animation transferred to digital video, 3 mins.

Georges Schwitzgebel (b. 1944, Switzerland)

The Ravishing of Frank N. Stein, 1982

Cel animation transferred to digital video, 10 mins.

Robert Darroll (b. 1946, South Africa)

Feng Huang, 1988

Cel animation transferred to digital video, 11 mins.

Organized by guest curator Peter Burr

Special thanks to Larry Cuba, Alexander Stewart, Mark Toscano, Jeanette Bonds, Becca Keating, Chris Sullivan and James Duesing.