Tim Burton at MoMA

And then looking up from my drawing, I realized Tim Burton was just like a kid who always loved to draw but managed somehow to defy the unimaginative school system's kill-joy insistence on putting down the pencil. He kept doing it anyway. (Creative writers fare much better in keeping the flame alive, with only graduate school killing off their natural talents.) Drawing and painting as a bored adolescent in Burbank, California, Burton continued in adulthood to make drawings as an aide to mental development and simply as a way to amuse himself. Sketching became a private means to communicate with a larger public, a way to wave off the demands of the larger culture to make him "normal." This is a man, after all, who says in MoMA's online exhibition video that wearing striped socks makes him feel better and that he totally identifies with Charlton Heston's character in The Omega Man (1971). Subsequently attending CalArts and then working as an unhappy

Most know Burton, of course, as the director of imaginative movies such as Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and

The works on display at MoMA, especially the drawings, look like a lifelong uninterrupted desire to escape the confines of normality. Dark creatures are your friends. The maturity displayed in later works, however, does not necessarily reflect a more refined talent but perhaps more the professionalization of the artist. Burton, like many successful professional artists, has the command of people to help him realize his ideas. The exhibition makes some effort to group Burton with the West Coast school of painters, given his interest in popular culture, but that seems a little forced. Surveying the many charming monsters and freaks sprung from his imagination, Burton seems more kin to gothic illustrators like Charles Addams and Edward Gorey or to German Expressionist stage designers of the 1920s than he does to surfing artist dudes of the West Coast.
Tim Burton continues at MoMA (11 W. 53rd St.) through April 26, 2010. The exhibit is popular and space is limited so the museum suggests the purchase of timed tickets on weekdays. Timed tickets are required on the weekends. Members of the museum can breeze on in. No photography. But bring a sketchbook. MoMA's interactive site here.
Image and sketches by Walking Off the Big Apple.
I am looking forward to this exhibit hopefully next week if weather stays pretty good. Sorry to see you cannot take photos. Do you think going on a Wednesday than a Saturday will be less crowded? Thank you !!
ReplyDeleteRosemary,
ReplyDeleteI think weather is supposed to improve next week. Yes, I think Wednesday would be less crowded than Saturday. If you can, go in the morning.
Sadly I didn't get to see the Tim Burton exhibition when i went to MOMA last week, but on the whole it was an excellent museum- a bit too busy though.
ReplyDeleteBy the way - I've just stumbled upon your blog a couple of days after visiting New York- it's making me want to go back!