It's Alive! A Century of Animation from the Collection

The Museum of Modern Art has opened It's Alive! A Century of Animation from the Collection, on view since August 1, 2026 and running into summer 2027. The exhibition looks at the roughly hundred years before digital tools transformed the medium, focusing on more than 35 artists and filmmakers who worked largely in New York.

More than 200 pieces of production art and films from the museum's holdings, made between 1908 and 2020, fill the galleries. Featured names include Jane Aaron, John Canemaker, Sally Cruikshank, Tissa David, Jerome Hill, Candy Kugel, Emily and Faith Hubley, David Ehrlich, George Griffin, Jeff Scher and Michael Sporn.

The checklist reaches well beyond the New York story. Look for Winsor McCay's ink-on-rice-paper drawings for Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), film stills from Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), and Hans Richter's Dadascope title cards, including one for Marcel Duchamp. Buzzco's early-1980s MTV cel setups bring in David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper and Tina Turner, alongside Sally Cruikshank's cel from Quasi at the Quackadero.

A theatrical series, It's Alive! Animation Archive Matinees, accompanies the show, with screenings beginning October 21, 2026. It includes work by the exhibited artists and other animators in the collection. The exhibition was organized by Ron Magliozzi, Francisco Valente, Katie Trainor and Cara Shatzman of MoMA's Department of Film.