Our guest curator this week is Issey Honton. Issey is our Conservation and Preparation Technician. He works closely with Ben Peters in designing and installing the various exhibits in The Walt Disney Family Museum.
We asked Issey to pick his favorite artifact from the Collection and write about why he chose it. Here's his pick:
My favorite object of the collection has to be one of the Heinrich Kley drawings. Kley, born in 1863, is best known for his satirical take on the modern industrial life of his time, as well as his ability to humanize animals. Although not as well-known today as he perhaps should be, his work influenced many artists throughout the 20th Century, including Walt Disney.
I love not only the subject matter of his drawings, but also the aesthetic because it clearly shows the artist's hand and intent.
The inspiration Heinrich Kley brought to Walt Disney is obvious in the animation classic Fantasia, where the animators brought life to many of nature’s little creatures. To me, each drawing is a piece of a storyboard for a tale I already know and love. His drawings speak to me in a language I haven’t spoken in ages: Imagination.