Tim Burton Exhibit

This past weekend I was in NYC for a tradeshow (you can read about that here), and on Monday my friend Kim and I played hooky from responsibility and saw the Tim Burton exhibit at the MoMA. Amazing. It's on display until April 26th, so if you're in the area, go go GO see it. Of course photography isn't allowed in the exhibit, but I was able to take a couple of the outside, and I scanned in the brochure as well, so at least you'll get a taste here of what I saw. Tim Burton grew up in Burbank, CA, and attending CalArts, and must be a disturbing individual :) He was an animator for Walt Disney for four years, before breaking out on his own, and of course has had his hand in a countless number of amazing films and projects. The exhibit shows his drawings and paintings from his childhood through today, and you can see the evolution to what his style is now. There are sculptures as well - some big, some small, some of which he created himself, and some of which others did, based on his direction. The entry to the main part of the exhibit itself is a giant scary creature's mouth, and inside is a long hallway of screens, showing recent animations he's done, containing characters from his book "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories"... I happen to own this book already - its fantastic and creepy, and I think a bit Edward Gorey-ish. There are many props and puppets and storyboards and sketches and notes and letters from many of his movies including Batman Returns, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Big Fish, Edward Scissorhands, Mars Attacks, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and even a sketch or two from the upcoming Alice in Wonderland. I loved seeing the various puppets - especially from Nightmare, and Corpse Bride.... he didn't build these himself I don't think, but it made me think how even though he seemed to have hated his time at Disney (there was one sketch there that was a statement about the Disney machine and how they seem to suck the creativity out of things) that the transformation and evolution of his ideas and storyboards and sketches, to the final puppets themselves used in the films - it gets "Disneyfied" or cleaned up itself... I wonder what he thinks about that....because his sketches are so rough and undefined. Regardless, it was an inspiring show, and I couldn't resist a souvenir from the gift shop!

The cover of the brochure:

Entrance to the main exhibit:

Me in the lobby:

Sketch from the brochure:

Sketch from the brochure:

A book from my own library:

From "...Oyster Boy..." :

My magnet souvenir: