Arts: Explore Origins of Tim Burton’s Goofy Gothic
- November 11, 2009
One of Tim Burton’s most famous characters, Edward Scissorhands, is way older than you think. “It was an idea from when I was a teenager,” says the director of Beetlejuice and the upcoming 3-D adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. “It had been in my mind for a long time.” Ditto Jack Skellington, the leading ghoul inThe Nightmare Before Christmas: “That was just a doodle I kept drawing over and over and over for no apparent reason.” Those and other doodles (like the self-inflating cephalopod from 1994, below) are on display at the Museum of Modern Art through April. The show includes drawings a young Burton did for the local football team and for a litter-prevention campaign in his hometown of Burbank, California. Other memorabilia include original puppets from The Nightmare Before Christmas and severed head props from Mars Attacks! To unearth some of the forgotten gems, Burton sifted through boxes of old drawings he’d had shipped from a warehouse in the States to his home in England. “It helps ground you and gets you to remember what interested you to begin with,” Burton says. “I’ve never really felt like a writer. It was always a visual thing for me.”
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| "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories" sketch, 1982-1984. Burton published a book of poetry and illustrations in 1997. This is one of the sketches he made for that book. |
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| Self-inflating cephalopod, 1994 |
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| "Cartoons" drawing, 1980-1986 |
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| "The Black Cauldron" drawing, 1983. Burton sketched out scenes for Disney’s 1985 animated film, but unfortunately, none of his 200 drawings were used for the final product. |
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| "Romeo and Juliet" drawing, 1981-1984. During his four-year apprenticeship at Disney studio, Burton pitched several movie ideas, including a reimagining of "Romeo and Juliet" where the tragic romance is between a land mass and the ocean. |
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| "Number drawing", 1982 |
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| "Blue Girl With Wine", 1997 |
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| "Blue Girl With Skull", 1992-1999. Burton had some drawings he wanted to bring to life, so he grabbed a Polaroid for the first time and convinced his office mate Leticia Rogers and his costume designer Colleen Atwood to have a little fun with him. Some of the fun inspired the Sally character from The Nightmare Before Christmas. |
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| "Trick or Treat" drawing, 1980 |
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| "Mars Attacks!" watercolor and pastel concept drawing, 1995 |
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| Red Queen sketch, 2009. In preparation for his 3-D interpretation of "Alice in Wonderland", Burton sketched the famed villain from the fable. |
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| "Frankenweenie" drawing, 1982. In 1984, Burton made "Frankenweenie", a short film, for Disney. Company executives promptly fired him when he completed the film, claiming Burton wasted resources on a film that was too scary for their young audience. They finally released the video 10 years later, after the success of "Beetlejuice" and "Batman". |
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| "Edward Scissorhands", 1990. Johnny Depp says that it wasn’t until he saw Burton’s sketches that he understood who he was to play. “I instantly fell for the character — he made his way into my body.” |
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| "Nightmare Before Christmas" storyboard, 1993 |
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| "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories" drawing, 1998 |
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| "Trick or Treat" drawing, 1980 |
EXHIBITIONS
Tim Burton
November 22, 2009–April 26, 2010
Theater 1 Gallery
Theater 2 Gallery
Special Exhibitions Gallery, third floor
Museum Lobby
Theater 2 Gallery
Special Exhibitions Gallery, third floor
Museum Lobby
source
Accompanied by the film exhibitions Tim Burton, Tim Burton and the Lurid Beauty of Monsters, and Tim Burton Sidebar: Waking Sleeping Beauty and Forbidden Zone
Read more about the exhibition at INSIDE/OUT, a MOMA/P.S.1 blog.
Download the Family Activity Guide in PDF format (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).
Read more about the exhibition at INSIDE/OUT, a MOMA/P.S.1 blog.
Download the Family Activity Guide in PDF format (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).
Taking inspiration from popular culture, Tim Burton (American, b. 1958) has reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as an expression of personal vision, garnering for himself an international audience of fans and influencing a generation of young artists working in film, video, and graphics. This exhibition explores the full range of his creative work, tracing the current of his visual imagination from early childhood drawings through his mature work in film. It brings together over seven hundred examples of rarely or never-before-seen drawings, paintings, photographs, moving image works, concept art, storyboards, puppets, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera from such films as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman, Mars Attacks!, Ed Wood,and Beetlejuice, and from unrealized and little-known personal projects that reveal his talent as an artist, illustrator, photographer, and writer working in the spirit of Pop Surrealism. The gallery exhibition is accompanied by a complete retrospective of Burton’s theatrical features and shorts, as well as a lavishly illustrated publication.
Burton's films include Vincent (1982), Pee-wee's Big Adventure(1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands(1990), Batman Returns (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas(as creator and producer) (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Mars Attacks!(1996), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big Fish (2003), Corpse Bride (2005),Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Sweeney Todd(2007); writing and Web projects include The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories (1997) and Stainboy (2000).
Burton's films include Vincent (1982), Pee-wee's Big Adventure(1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands(1990), Batman Returns (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas(as creator and producer) (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Mars Attacks!(1996), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big Fish (2003), Corpse Bride (2005),Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Sweeney Todd(2007); writing and Web projects include The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories (1997) and Stainboy (2000).
Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, and Jenny He, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film, with Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film.
Tim Burton is sponsored by Syfy.
Additional funding is provided by The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art.
Tim Burton is sponsored by Syfy.
Additional funding is provided by The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art.
Related Events
Upcoming
Past
The Museum of Modern Art Film Benefit
A tribute to Tim Burton
Helena Bonham Carter
Johnny Depp
Robert A. Iger and Willow Bay
David and Julia Koch
Co-Chairs
Johnny Depp
Robert A. Iger and Willow Bay
David and Julia Koch
Co-Chairs
Cocktails at 6:30 p.m.
Presentation at 7:30 p.m.
Dinner at 8:00 p.m.
After-party at 9:00 p.m. to midnight
Featuring music by DJ Justin Miller (DFA Records)
Presentation at 7:30 p.m.
Dinner at 8:00 p.m.
After-party at 9:00 p.m. to midnight
Featuring music by DJ Justin Miller (DFA Records)
Founded in 1935 as the Film Library, the department now oversees an internationally renowned collection of more than twenty-two thousand films and four million film stills incorporating all periods and genres. Among its holdings are original negatives of the Biograph and Edison companies and the world's largest collection of D. W. Griffith's films.
A Golden Globe–winning and Academy Award–nominated film director, producer, writer, and artist, Tim Burton has become a household name. From his offbeat debut feature Pee-wee's Big Adventure, to the darkly comic Edward Scissorhands, to such blockbuster films as Batman and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the filmmaker has made a lasting impact on pop culture with his uniquely skewed artistic vision. Burton will be honored with a monographic exhibition of his art and films at The Museum of Modern Art from November 22, 2009, to April 26, 2010, and his most recent project, a 3-D reimagination of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, will be released in March 2010.
Tim Burton Tour Nights
Spice up your November with the fables, fairy tales, and fantasies of one of Hollywood’s most unique visionaries when you experience the highly anticipated Tim Burton exhibition before it opens to the public. This one-hour private tour of Burton’s drawings, paintings, and sketchbooks, as well as film props and costumes, concludes with a priority reserved seat for a screening of Burton's Beetlejuice (1988).
Sunday, November 22, 2009, 3:30 p.m.
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Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands. 1990. USA. Produced and directed by Tim Burton. Screenplay by Burton and Caroline Thompson. With Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker, Alan Arkin, Vincent Price. Arguably Burton’s most personal film, Edward Scissorhands delves into one of his most prominent themes: disconnection from the world at large and the search for true identity. Edward, clad in a stitched-together leather body suit and left alone in a hilltop castle after his creator’s sudden death, is Burton’s most literal Frankenstein’s monster; incapable of directly touching others with his razor-sharp fingers, he is the physical manifestation of isolation. When a kind Avon lady discovers him and introduces him to suburbia, his chief channel of communication, the ability to shape things—hair, hedges, ice—into wondrous sculptures, engenders a brief welcome, but his acceptance is short-lived in this parable of teenage angst and acceptance. 105 min.
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. 1993. USA. Directed by Henry Selick. Story and characters and produced by Tim Burton. Screenplay by Michael McDowell, Caroline Thompson. With the voices of Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Glen Shadix. Revolving around a manic depressive antihero, The Nightmare Before Christmas straddles the line between a grim children’s fable and a gentle horror story. Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, who annually masterminds the frights of the holiday for the “real world,” becomes dissatisfied with the monotony of success. Obsessed with his new discovery of Christmas and all its trappings and frills, he embarks upon the challenge of being “Sandy Claws.” 76 min.
Actor Chris Sarandon will join us for a special discussion of his work on the film as the voice of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town.
Actor Chris Sarandon will join us for a special discussion of his work on the film as the voice of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town.
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. 1985. USA. Directed by Tim Burton. Screenplay by Phil Hartman, Paul Reubens. With Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton. Burton established himself as a director with a unique personal vision in this, his first feature, in which Pee-wee embarks on an elaborate search for his missing bicycle, a scenario that allows Burton to indulge in whimsical set pieces and extravagant sight gags. Like the elaborate Rube Goldberg–esque contraption (a familiar Burton motif) that facilitates Pee-wee’s morning routine, this simple plot unfolds in visually complex ways, such as the climactic ride through the Warner Bros. back lot—a montage of zany fun as Pee-wee and his beloved bike zoom through a beach-blanket-bingo set, the North Pole, Godzilla’s rampage, a Twisted Sister music video, and Tarzan’s jungle. 90 min.
David L. Snyder, Production Designer, will join us for a special discussion of his work on the film. Snyder launched his career with Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Art Direction. Since then, he has designed more than thirty feature films, including Demolition Man, Super Mario Bros., The Whole Nine Yards, Untitled, and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
David L. Snyder, Production Designer, will join us for a special discussion of his work on the film. Snyder launched his career with Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Art Direction. Since then, he has designed more than thirty feature films, including Demolition Man, Super Mario Bros., The Whole Nine Yards, Untitled, and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
Beyond Burbank: Collaborating with Tim Burton
Tim Burton is a film director, producer, writer, concept artist, fiction writer, photographer and illustrator but to fully develop a story and bring it to life on screen, he works with countless collaborators. Join Colleen Atwood, costume designer;Stephen Chiodo, stop-motion animator and director in animation and live action; Danny Elfman, composer; and Rick Heinrichs, sculptor, installation designer and production designer as they discuss their work with Burton on films such as Vincent (1982), Hansel and Gretel (1983), Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big Fish (2003), and Alice in Wonderland (2010). Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and co-organizer of the exhibition Tim Burton, moderates a discussion.
Friday, April 2, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
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Tim Burton. Untitled (Cartoons). 1980–86. Pencil on paper, 13 x 16” (33 x 40.6 cm). Private collection. © 2010 Tim Burton
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