A World of Color: Mary Blair’s Mid-Century Magic Comes to Life in New Exhibit
The Walt Disney Family Museum is once again celebrating the legendary work of Mary Blair in a new special exhibition, Mary Blair: Mid-Century Magic. Featuring Diane Disney Miller’s collection of Mary Blair artwork, this new gallery is included with a general admission ticket and is located in the lower lobby and theater gallery. Ahead of today’s debut, I had the pleasure of previewing the event twice, during an opening reception for museum members and during a D23 sneak preview.
In 2014, the museum hosted a special exhibit called Magic, Color, Flair: The World of Mary Blair, which was a separate-ticket event in the Diane Disney Miller Exhibition Hall (now a rentable event space). That special exhibit was a more all-encompassing retrospective of Blair’s life and career. While Mary Blair: Mid-Century Magic has elements of that, its primary focus is on her collaborations with Disney, which is why the first two pieces on display are so fitting.
Mary Blair’s signature style was, in part, the result of joining Walt Disney’s South American Good Will Tour in 1941. With it’s a small world being one of Blair’s most synonymous works, the gallery fittingly begins with two paintings from that trip of a Peruvian girl and boy. These paintings also hold special significance to the museum, as they were hung in Walt Disney’s home, and are still in their original frames.
There is one piece of Blair’s pre-Disney artwork on display in the gallery, a self-portrait she did in 1930 while attending San Jose State College, which shows how much her artistic style evolved.
The same can be said of some of her Disney work before the South America tour. On display are four pieces of visual development art for “Baby Ballet" (an unmade sequence from the abandoned plans to keep updating Fantasia annually) and Dumbo.
An entire wall is devoted to the significance of the South America trip on Mary Blair’s art style. These include artwork created on the trip, some of which was shown in the package feature Saludos Amigos.
Upon meeting Carmen Miranda in Brazil, Walt Disney commissioned Mary Blair to create this painting for the popular singer and actress.
This wall also includes artwork directly from the productions of Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.
Package features defined the warring years of the 1940s. Some of Mary’s artwork for Melody Time and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" portions of The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr. Toad connect the dots to her best-known work in Disney Animation.
Moving from the lower lobby into the theater gallery, visitors are treated to Mary Blair’s watercolor visual development work for three bonafide Disney classics, starting with Cinderella.
Alice in Wonderland is celebrated as the film that most faithfully translates Mary Blair’s concept artwork to the screen.
Peter Pan boasts more pieces of concept art than any other film in the gallery.
Also included are artworks for two shorts from the 1950s, The Little House and Susie, the Little Blue Coupe.
A concentration of artwork from it’s a small world serves as the centerpiece of the theater lobby’s display, and more of it is also sprinkled throughout the experience.
The center display features five pieces of visual development artwork, some of which was for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, while others are for the Disneyland facade.
One that is particularly impressive in person is this cellophane collage made in 1966.
Throughout her time at Disney, Mary Blair worked closely with fellow visual artist and Imagineer Rolly Crump. One of the walls celebrates their collaboration with wooden crate lids made by the two artists, one of which features their likeness in Blair’s small world style.
Mary Blair: Mid-Century Magic also includes an interactive it’s a small world experience where visitors can help assemble the facade’s skyline.
A few other Disney Parks highlights are featured, including sketches for Mary Blair’s Tomorrowland murals.
A precursor to the Tomorrowland ceramic tile murals was a commissioned installation at the Stein Eye Institute, which carried over the children of the world theme from it’s a small world. A reproduction of one of the tile segments is on display, alongside information about its creation and Blair’s other tile mural, the Grand Canyon Concourse, still on display at Disney's Contemporary Resort.
Connecting all the work to the artist is Mary Blair’s painting cabinet and accessories, featuring the well-worn signs of all the marvelous creations she made.
During the opening reception for museum members, executive director Kirsten Komoroske and Director of Exhibitions & Collections Marina Villar Delgado gave some opening remarks, which can be heard in our video overview of the gallery.
The D23 preview included a commemorative gift of a pennant flag using concept art from it’s a small world and a tea reception.
In addition to time on your own in the museum’s main gallery and the new Mary Blair exhibit, Walt Disney Archives Director Becky Cline and Mary Blair’s niece Maggie Richardson hosted a Q&A in the theater, which also played clips from Mary Blair’s work.
The gift shop celebrates the arrival of the special exhibition with some new merchandise, including Mary Blair it’s a small world artwork on t-shirts (in adult and child sizes) and hoodies.
Visitors can take home their own postcard-size versions of some of Mary Blair’s artwork from the exhibit.
There’s also a quartet of pins depicting children enjoying the four seasons, from a commercial project Mary Blair did for Meadow Gold Dairies in 1954.
And one of the best ways to bring home more of Mary Blair’s art and story is through two books - The Art and Flair of Mary Blair and Magic Color Flair: The World of Mary Blair - both by John Canemaker.
Mary Blair: Mid-Century Magic is running now through September 7th, 2025. Visit waltdisney.org for more information about the Walt Disney Family Museum, including operating hours and ticket availability.
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