Tim Burton at MoMA

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993); Directed by Henry Selick; Shown: Sally, Jack Skellington; Credit:Touchstone/Photofest  ©Touchstone Pictures
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993); Directed by Henry Selick; Shown: Sally, Jack Skellington; Credit:Touchstone/Photofest ©Touchstone Pictures

Beetlejuice (1988) aka Beetle Juice; Directed by Tim Burton Shown (center):Michael Keaton (as Beetlejuice); Credit:Warner Bros./Photofest; © Warner Bros.
Beetlejuice (1988) aka Beetle Juice; Directed by Tim Burton Shown (center):Michael Keaton (as Beetlejuice); Credit:Warner Bros./Photofest; © Warner Bros.

Tim Burton. (American, b. 1958); Untitled (The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories); 1982–1984; Pen and ink, marker, and colored pencil on paper, 10 x 9" (25.4 x 22.9 cm);  Private Collection; © 2009 Tim Burton
Tim Burton. (American, b. 1958); Untitled (The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories); 1982–1984; Pen and ink, marker, and colored pencil on paper, 10 x 9\

Tim Burton; (American, b. 1958); Blue Girl with Wine. c. 1997; Oil on canvas, 28 x 22" (71.1 x 55.9 cm); Private Collection; © 2009 Tim Burton
Tim Burton; (American, b. 1958); Blue Girl with Wine. c. 1997; Oil on canvas, 28 x 22\

Throughout his career, Tim Burton has always pushed the cinematic envelope. This November, the Museum of Modern Art presents a major retrospective of his work. Tim Burton considers his evolution as both a director and concept artist for live-action and animated films, and as an artist, illustrator, photographer and writer. The show will trace Burton’s creative history, from his earliest childhood drawings through his mature work in film.

The exhibition will bring together over 700 examples of rarely or never-before-seen drawings, paintings, photographs, storyboards, moving-image works, puppets, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera, and include an extensive film series spanning Burton’s 27-year career. Artworks and objects will be drawn primarily from the artist’s personal archive, as well as studio archives and the private collections of Burton’s collaborators. His student films and early, nonprofessional films will also be on display. International and domestic posters from Burton’s films will be on display in the theater lobby galleries.

The show will also include little-known drawings, paintings, and sculptures created in the spirit of contemporary Pop Surrealism, as well as work generated during the conception and production of his films, such as original The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride puppets; Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, and Sleepy Hollow costumes; and even severed-head props from Mars Attacks!

In conjunction with Tim Burton, MoMA presents The Lurid Beauty of Monsters, a series of films that influenced, inspired, and intrigued Burton. Taking as its starting point a screening of
horror movies that Burton organized in Burbank in 1977, the series includes such films as Jason
and the Argonauts
(Don Chaffey, 1963), Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920), The Pit and the Pendulum (Roger Corman, 1961), Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau, 1922), and Earthquake (Mark Robson, 1974), and will be screened from December 2, 2009 to April 26, 2010.

The show runs through April 2010.
Images courtesy of MoMA. For more info, visit www.moma.org