MoMA Animates the Case for Experimental ’Toons

At the centerpiece of the Museum of Modern Art’s ongoing exhibition, “It’s Alive! A Century of Animation from the Collection,” there’s a famous quote from the great animator, as well as designer, director, and overall auteur, John Hubley from an article he published in 1946, declaiming that the medium of animated film was “no longer the vaudeville world of pigs and bunnies.” Hubley was the perfect individual to make such a declaration, since he was one of the primary artists responsible for taking the art form into brave new worlds in the immediate postwar era. He continued, “We have found that line, shape, color, and symbols in movement can represent the essence of an idea, and a suitable form can be found for any idea.”