Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase

This is an incredible piece of work and just had me groping for words after I saw it the other day. I'm not terribly visually oriented (my skills are more in the verbal realm), so when an almost completely visual short burns itself onto my brain the way this has, that's quite a feat! It begins and ends with Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and has her morph into another piece (I think it's a Picasso, but don't bet the farm on that-I'm not an Art History expert) which morphs into a third and so on. There were more than 30, of which I recognized about ten and could name five or six. Someone more versed in paintings than this humble scribe would probably do much better than I could. But this is an exceptionally fine piece of animation that deservedly won the Academy Award for Animated Short. It moves quite fast (it's only about seven minutes long) and can be a bit overwhelming with its transitions, but well worth watching and most highly recommended.

'Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase' is wonderful short animation off 35 iconic art pieces melting and morphing into each other. Beautiful form of 2D clay animation (or clay painting) and wonderful music turns this short film into much more than just a collage and can definitely be appreciated even when you are not much of an art specialist. Just a beautiful movie. An art piece about art.

This short can also be used a sort of a game - how many paintings can you name?

My wife (an art major) and I saw this on PBS' series "The Territory", April 2006. As a hobbyist animator, I was very impressed by the "clay painting" technique (not really claymation, more 2D), and we both had fun trying to name the (many, many) iconic art works. Everything from Munch's "Scream" to Warhol's Marilyn.

The technique involved more or less continuous "morphing" from one work to another, but artistically done rather than much of the mindless photographic morphing. It gives the impression of a "chain of thought" type dream tour through a really good modern art museum.

Great stuff.

This short film won an Academy Award for best animated short. It consists of a series of animated reproductions of major art works, primarily from the 20th century, and has an unusual technique for moving from one picture to another. I have been to most of the world's major art galleries. While I am certainly not an art historian, I was able to recognize a majority of the artists and the works portrayed. I was not able to recognize all of them, and I wish they had been labeled.

I recommend this film to anyone studying art or art history for a different twist on the subject matter. The movie is available on VHS from pyramid media, and it is overpriced.

I love comments like for people interested in art this is good, otherwise..... That's like saying for people interested in religion, the Bible is a pretty good book. Look at the mastery colors, the careful selection of pieces that can morph into others, and the skill with which it is done.