PIONEERING ARTIST HELPED CREATE DISNEY’S CLASSIC FILMS
The 1950s and 1960s at the Walt Disney Studios marked unprecedented stylistic directions brought on by the mid-century modern and graphic sensibilities of a new wave of artists.
EVENT
ANIMATION ART SIGNATURE® AUCTION 7216
Dec. 13-15, 2019
Live: Beverly Hills
Online: HA.com/7216a
INQUIRIES
Jim Lentz 214.409.1991
JimL@HA.com
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In his book They Drew As They Pleased Vol 4: The Hidden Art of Disney’s MidCentury Era: The 1950s and 1960s, Disney historian Didier Ghez notes the artists leading this wave were Lee Blair, Tom Oreb, John Dunn, Walt Peregoy and Mary Blair. These “heroes” helped shape the future of animation.
“Mary had an exceptional sense of color and design,” Ghez says. “At first, Walt [Disney] was a little stunned by her art, which was unlike anything he had seen before, but then he fell in love with it. He realized how contemporary her designs were and how talented she was as an artist.”
Blair (1911-1978) went on to help shape the style of some of the best animated features from the 1950s, Ghez says, including Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan.
More than 25 pieces of original Blair art are featured in Heritage’s animation art auction scheduled for Dec. 13-15, 2019. “This represents one of the largest collections of Mary Blair artwork ever brought to auction,” says Jim Lentz, director of animation art at Heritage Auctions. “Blair perhaps is best known for designing one of Disneyland’s most beloved rides, It’s a Small World, which originally premiered at the 1964 New York World’s Fair before it moved to Disneyland parks. It’s been said she was one of Walt Disney’s favorite artists.”
Born in Oklahoma, Blair moved to Texas as a child before her family headed to California, where she attended the Chouinard Art Institute. She joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1940, working on Dumbo, Lady and the Tramp and Fantasia. A visit to Latin America influenced her design and use of bright colors. She later created advertising campaigns for companies like Nabisco and Maxwell House, and illustrated Little Golden Books for Simon & Schuster.
More recently, her work was part of the first major art exhibit at the Walt Disney Family Museum in 2014. A collection titled “The Magic and Flair of Mary Blair” recently exhibited at the Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and her pieces have toured Japan.
Original Blair art is catching collector attention, with a 1964 concept painting by the artist for It’s a Small World realizing $66,000 at a June 2019 Heritage auction, a world auction record for Blair’s work.
Increased collector attention may be due, in part, to Blair’s “naive and modern” style, which appeals to a wide range of sensitivities, Ghez says. Plus, “She is one of the few truly influential women from [Disney’s] story department, along with Bianca Majolie, Grace Huntington, Retta Scott and Sylvia Holland.”
“Her creativity and exuberant color palette,” Lentz adds, “impacted the ‘look’ of many classic Disney features. She certainly was a trailblazing artist, not only at Disney, but in the worlds of animation, film, illustration, theme parks and advertising.”
This article appears in the Winter 2019-2020 edition of The Intelligent Collector magazine. Click here to subscribe to the print edition.