Rare animation production art from the 1920s-1990s

ongoing Cartoon Art Museum exhibition

San Francisco, CA: From the earliest hand-drawn cartoons to today’s blockbuster CGI films, all animation begins with an artist and an idea. The Cartoon Art Museum’s new exhibition, A Treasury of Animation, showcases original production art following the evolution of animation from the 1920s onward.

The first major exhibition drawn from the Cartoon Art Museum's vast permanent collection since its reopening in Fisherman's Wharf, A Treasury of Animation features historic never-before-seen work. "Our permanent collection houses thousands of animation cels and concept drawings,” says CAM Curator Andrew Farago, "but only a small portion of that artwork can be shown at any given time. This exhibition is an opportunity for us to show off the best of the best from the museum’s archives.”

Highlights include background paintings, cels and production art from beloved films like Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia and theatrical shorts starring icons like Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and Popeye. The exhibition explores the history of television animation from the first TV animated series, Crusader Rabbit, through primetime favorites like The Simpsons.

Highlights from the Cartoon Art Museum's most recent acquisition, a collection of illustrations, backgrounds, and paintings by animation legend Irv Wyner, will be on public display for the first time in this retrospective thanks to a generous donation from animation collector Mike Fazio.

About the Cartoon Art Museum Permanent Collection
The Cartoon Art Museum is home to over 7,000 pieces of original artwork, including cartoons, comic books, comic strips, editorial cartoons, concept sketches, color roughs and newspaper tearsheets. The Cartoon Art Museum is one of the few museums worldwide with a permanent collection of original animation art. Animation holdings include production artwork such as cels, drawings, background paintings, and storyboards, as well as illustrations, pitch materials, and other documents from the rich history of animated TV series and films. Animators and studios represented in the collection include Max Fleischer and Fleischer Studios, Terrytoons, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Co., Filmation, Nelvana Studios, Hanna-Barbera and Tatsunoko Productions.