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Backgrounds in cartoons perhaps hit their peak in the 1950's, sort of an alternate reality to painting in the art world. They were what might have been, if AbEx hadn't emerged. I just discovered Cartoon Modern, a great new blog [supporting a forthcoming book] on 50's animation design.

It’s perhaps a bit ironic to start with [Maurice] Noble because he was one of the more controversial designers of the 1950s. In modern day animation, he is revered as a design god of sorts, but it wasn’t always that way. During the 1950s, many of Noble’s contemporaries were not particularly fond of his design work, and his work was often derided as being too playful and frivolous.