Inspired from popular culture, Tim Burton’s works have reinvented the face of film. He is both an artist and filmmaker, and has created many films including Edward Scissorhands, Bettlejuice, The Night Before Christmas, and many others. One of the exhibitions explored “the lurid beauty of monsters” through a series of films that have inspired Burton’s work, reflecting the motifs, theme, and sensibilities of his work. Most of the exhibitions bring together seven hundred examples of rarely or never-before-seen drawings, paintings, photographs, moving image works, concept art, storyboards, puppets, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera of many of his films.
In a documentary, Tim Burton states that he appreciates the way MoMA blurs the lines between his different works of art. All the works complement each other and aren’t separated in to separate categories. Curator, Ron Magliozzi compares the production of an exhibition to a film- the gallery vein the film set, the art installed the “characters,” and the curator- the director.
Because Tim Burton’s work was never meant to be on display in a gallery, the team decided to structure the who in two ways: the first, a narrative of his life in Burbank, CA and the second as a successful filmmaker- exploring Burton’s major motifs, such as body modification, armoring, masking, and Burton’s creature-based notions of character.
The presence of surrealism is predominantly captured throughout most of Burton’s work- placing major emphasis on the contortion of reality and what is “normal.” From an early age he states that the word “normal” scared him, leading him to believe his behavior wasn’t, therefore suppressing his thoughts. His main inspiration, he states, was his teacher who encouraged him to draw what he wanted to do, to do what his hands told him, not the rest of the world. I think this concept is truly important in order to understand the dynamics of art and its foundations.
20 million miles to Earth, 1957
3D Gallery
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/timburton/
Artist: Tim Burton
Title of Work: Tim Burton, Tim Burton and Lurid Beauty of Monsters
Date of Work: Life Works of Tim Burton
Curator: Ron Magliozzi
Materials/Medium: Films,Paintings, Sketchbooks, polaroids, sculptures, posters, writing, drawings
Genre: comedy, horror
Location: MoMa
I was alone when viewing this exhibit.
