Memory: Tyrus Wong at the Disney Museum, 2014

Here’s another entry in my ongoing project to rescue exhibit information from my old blog. Today I’m looking at images from Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong at the Disney Family Museum (August 15, 2013 - February 3, 2014).

Wong had a fascinating career. At the time of this exhibit he was still with us. He was 103 and still actively creating beautiful work. This wide-ranging exhibit showed over 150 works by Wong, including a display of handmade kites, which were his passion in his later years.

The exhibit begins with the story of his immigration from China through Angel Island as a child, and what a trial it was, and establishes how he found a balance between Chinese ideas of form and perspective and Western methods of portraying a scene. These ideas are evident in his best-known work, the concept art for Disney's 1940's masterpiece Bambi. In a video, Wong talks about the contrast between the mists and the need for distance in Chinese painting, where Western painting tends to feature the main subject front and center. His atmospheric paintings really set the tone for Bambi, and made it the work of art it is.

Wong was laid off at Disney following an acrimonious labor dispute and strike, eventually working again as a storyboard artist for Warner Brothers TV. He also designed scarves, dishware, greeting cards, and ceramic tiles. His post-retirement watercolors are lovely and moody, showing his isolation as he dealt with that transition in his life. Then he discovered kite making, which he does in a precise traditional manner. He was still making kites and participating in kite events, particularly at Venice Beach in Southern California at the time of this exhibit. Wong's kites looked beautiful hanging from the beams of the open ceiling of the gallery. The mezzanine was ringed with photos of the kites in the air and celebratory quotes from other animators that have found inspiration in Wong's work.

There’s an article about this show on Cartoon Brew with a good slideshow. Here’s another from the Chinese Historical Society of America. Wong passed away at 106 in 2016. Here are tributes from the Disney and Hammer museums.