Joan Carol Gratz (born 1941) is an American artist, animator, and filmmaker who specializes in

clay painting Clay painting animation is a form of clay animation, which is one of the many kinds of stop motion animation. It blurs the distinction between clay animation, cel animation and cutout animation. Clay painting animation (which is also a variation ...

. Gratz is best known for her 1992 Oscar-winning animated short film ''

Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase ''Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase'' is a 1992 American animated short by Joan C. Gratz. Summary Consisting of 2-D claymation, it features famous paintings morphing into each other. List of artists featured The works of several artists are fea ...

''.

Early life

In 1941, Gratz was born in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

. Gratz's father was an electrical engineer her mother was an English teacher. From a young age she had an interest in art.

Education

While Gratz was a student in architecture, she began painting. Gratz was filming her painting process. In 1969, Gratz obtained a degree in professional architecture at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. Before graduating, Gratz began to experiment with the possibilities of animation and started to explore the idea of "making paintings breathe" with a technique she explained as "

". After graduating, she moved to Oregon, making a living by creating puppets and poster graphics.

Career

In 1976, Gratz was asked to work for

Will Vinton William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an Oscar for his work a ...

in the new up and coming Will Vinton Studios, and began working in the film industry during the production of ''Rip Van Winkle'' (1978). During her time at Vinton Studios, Gratz worked on many films as an animator, but in 1987 she decided to work as a freelance animator and filmmaker due to issues involved with collaborative film projects, and not receiving the proper credit for her work. In 1987, Gratz established Gratzfilm, her own studio to direct and produce her films. Once a freelance animator and filmmaker, Gratz continued to be represented by Vinton Studio, and her success led her to receive commissions for commercials from large companies such as

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

. In 1990, Gratz animated a commercial for

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

entitled ''Natural'', which consisted of her clay painting technique. After eight years of planning and researching, and two years of working through the creation and animation process, Gratz completed her film ''Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase'' in 1992. The title of this seven minute long film combines the titles of Leonardo DaVinci's famous painting, the ''

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known ...

'' (1503), and

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

's iconic modernist piece, ''

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 ''Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2'' (French: ''Nu descendant un escalier n° 2'') is a 1912 painting by Marcel Duchamp. The work is widely regarded as a Modernist classic and has become one of the most famous of its time. Before its first pres ...

'' (1919). Consisting of fifty-five twentieth-century paintings, Gratz uses her clay painting technique to present her audience with the history and evolution of modern art, beginning with

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

, and continuing until the Pop Art movement and

Hyperrealism Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as w ...

through metamorphic transitions between each work of art. The sound and music for the film were provided by composer Jamie Haggerty and

Chel White Chel White (born May 30, 1959) is an Americans, American film director, composer, screenwriter and visual effects artist. In his independent films and music videos, White is known for his stylized, often experimental use of images, animation and ...

. It won the 1992 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, and won many other awards at various film festivals around the world. In 1993, Gratz co-directed and animated ''Pro and Con'' with Joanne Priestly. Using mixed media including writing and calligraphy, and creating through black clay on white backgrounds, ''Pro and Con'' illustrates a docudrama about prison life seen through the eyes of a prisoner and a corrections officer. Gratz is also an author. In June 2014, Gratz was a writer and illustrator of My Tesla: A love story of a mouse and her car, a disguised children book for adults.

Accolades

At the Academy Awards, ''Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase'' (1992) won an Oscar for the Best Animated Short Film in 1993.

Filmography

Director and producer

* 1988 ''Candyjam'' - Director * 1992 ''Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase'' - Director * 1993 ''Pro and Con'' (co-director) * 2010 ''Kubla Kan'' * 2014 ''Lost and Found'' * 2016 ''Primal Flux'' - Director * 2020 ''No Leaders Please'' - Director

As animator

* ''Rip Van Winkle'' (1978) * ''Legacy: A Very Short History of Natural Resources'' (1979) * ''The Little Prince'' (1979) * ''

Dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

'' (1980) * ''A Christmas Gift'' (1980) * ''The Creation'' (1981) ''The Creation'' on Internet Archive
/ref> * ''Candyjam'' (1988) * ''Kubla Kan'' (2010) * ''Lost and Found'' (2014) * ''No Leaders Please'' (2020)

References

External links

*
Joan C. Gratz at mostlymovies.ca

Joan C. Gratz at austinchronicle.com
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gratz, Joan Animators from California American animated film directors American women film directors American women film producers American women animators Clay animators American animated film producers People from Burbank, California University of California, Los Angeles alumni Living people Directors of Best Animated Short Academy Award winners 1941 births Film directors from California Film producers from California 21st-century American women