Animation, production art featured in ‘Building a Narrative’

Asummer exhibition in the School of Art,

Art History & Design’s Eisentrager-

Howard Gallery featured original artwork from popular films, animated television series, comics and trading cards from a local collector.

Left: A 1986 concept drawing by Kelly Asbury for Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Courtesy photo. Back: Building a Narrative featured a grid of 90 animation cels from 90 different TV series. Above: Walt Peregoy’s Living with the Land concept art from Epcot Center’s The Land Pavilion.

As part of the Lincoln Collects series, Building a Narrative: Production Art and Pop Culture was comprised of selected works from the private collection of alumnus Trent Claus (B.F.A. 2006), who is a visual effects supervisor for Lola VFX.

Lincoln Collects is an ongoing series hosted by the school to showcase works belonging to notable art collectors in the Lincoln area.

“We were extremely excited to show Trent’s extraordinary collection of production artwork including concept art, storyboards and visual effects from popular culture spanning TV and film,” said School of Art, Art History & Design Director Francisco Souto. “Trent’s concept art collection gave the community a rare glance of the impact of storytelling has on popular culture and how it has shaped our own personal narratives.”

Claus has been collecting this art for 25 years.

“What everything shares in common is that it’s a piece of art that was generated on the way to the final product,” Claus said. “So a lot of the pieces don’t get seen a lot by the general public, and a lot of the artists aren’t known by the general public. It’s exciting to shed a spotlight on them and their work and see all of the artistry and collaboration that goes on behind the scenes of the things we all know.”

The exhibition included highlights from everything from Star Wars, including a concept piece from Return of the Jedi by artist Ralph McQuarrie to Star Trek, The Goonies, Labyrinth, Ghostbusters, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Dances with Wolves, and much more. The exhibit also included original comic art and paintings from the Garbage Pail Kids trading cards.

For more on the collection, visit go.unl.edu/claus.  ■