Inside the mind of Tim Burton
| New York
If a visit inside the mind of an enigmatic director were written as a screenplay, it might begin like this:
INTERIOR: MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK CITY 鈥� DAY
The VIEWER sees a spiral painted on the floor outside an art gallery, a symbol of unbalanced vertigo. She walks on a red-carpet 鈥渢ongue鈥� through a portal shaped like a toothy monster鈥檚 head. Six video monitors line a black-and-white striped corridor showing the misadventures of a hapless antisuperhero named Stainboy. LAUGHTER from other MUSEUM-GOERS. The viewer is plunged into a spooky room lit by black light, where an iridescent carousel revolves above a many-tentacled, phosphorescent sea creature.
ART CRITIC
鈥淲elcome to the weird, wacky, wonderful world of Tim Burton鈥檚 imagination!鈥�
Until April 26, 2010, the Museum of Modern Art hosts 鈥淭im Burton,鈥� an exhibition of 500 drawings, cartoons, paintings, sketches, photographs, and moving-image works by the director of hit films like 鈥�Beetlejuice,鈥� 鈥�Edward Scissorhands,鈥� and 鈥�Batman.鈥� The display of original work is accompanied by screenings of his 14 feature films and 200 objects like props, 鈥渟culps,鈥� and costumes fabricated for the films. Museum director Glenn Lowry terms it 鈥渢he largest, most comprehensive monographic show to date devoted to a single filmmaker.鈥� Mr. Lowry praises Burton for allowing curators access to his personal archive, which seems to include every doodle he ever scribbled from childhood 鈥檛il now.
鈥淚t鈥檚 rare an artist lets you inside their mind,鈥� Lowry adds, providing 鈥渁 glimpse of how they think and feel,鈥� as well as 鈥渢he issues that shape their work.鈥� He saluted the director, saying, 鈥淭im, you explore deep and dark fears we all share but in a way that brings out the humor and humanity in all of us.鈥�
Many themes and motifs in the work stem from a painful childhood. Burton, born in Burbank, Calif., in 1958, felt alienated from his suburban environment, which he鈥檚 described as colorless and conformist. Estranged from his parents, the future goth-inspired director enjoyed playing in a local cemetery (no surprise there). A classic geek, he cloistered himself in his room, drawing fantastic creatures, seeking release and relief in his imagination. What he terms 鈥渢he lurid beauty鈥� of monster movies like 鈥淕odzilla鈥� and horror films like 鈥淣osferatu鈥� attracted him. He identified with their misfit, misunderstood characters.
Burton spent two years at art school and four miserable years as an apprentice animator at Walt Disney Studios, where he unlearned more than learned the craft. Assigned to draw endearing foxes for the 1981 animated feature 鈥淭he Fox and the Hound,鈥� Burton鈥檚 beasts were the antithesis of cute. His foxes looked rabid or were smashed like roadkill 鈥� The Magic Kingdom as The Macabre Kingdom.
The exhibition makes clear how Burton鈥檚 early experiences shaped 鈥� and still inform 鈥� his art and filmmaking. The show is divided into three sections: Surviving Burbank (juvenilia like school papers, drawings, and lists of favorite movies), Beautifying Burbank (cartoons he drew as an art student and animator), and Beyond Burbank (concept drawings and sketches of characters in his films).
Common threads emerge in both drawings and films: monstrous but childlike creatures that elicit sympathy through their vulnerability, inventive costume, and set designs bursting with panache, and a distinctive mix of horror and humor.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a humorous artist,鈥� says assistant curator of film Ron Magliozzi, who organized the show. 鈥淎nd ultimately I think he鈥檚 an optimistic artist. Look at how he survived when he was faced with any distressing situation. He didn鈥檛 respond by shutting down. He responded by producing more and more work 鈥� drawings and cartoons. Creative activity seems to be his response to stress.鈥�
Burton鈥檚 woebegone heroes, too, seek consolation in creativity. The archetypal outsider Edward Scissorhands, a sweetly pathetic boy with blades for fingers who literally cannot touch another person, finds solace in sculpting topiary shrubs. Johnny Depp, who brought the character to life in the 1990 film, has said it was Burton鈥檚 initial sketches of the sad character, which 鈥渉aunted鈥� and 鈥渢raumatized鈥� him, that helped him internalize the outcast鈥檚 essence.
What makes the bizarre characters in Burton鈥檚 films appealing is his sympathy for them. 鈥淭hey come from a personal space,鈥� says curatorial assistant Jenny He. 鈥淗e makes emotional, subjective films, and even though the material may be dark and slightly macabre, it鈥檚 kind of innocuous and funny, so you鈥檙e not offended.鈥�
The cartoons Burton produced during the 1980s bristle with adolescent humor. In one titled 鈥�Mental Floss,鈥� an impossibly elongated figure holds a string in his bony fingers, using it to ream his brain through both ears. In 鈥淐urtis is giving his eyes a rest,鈥� a man鈥檚 eyeballs dangle out on wires, with one reposing on a lounge chair, the other relaxing on a beach towel. The puns and verbal and visual humor are a hoot.
Burton鈥檚 gaudy style, which Mr. Magliozzi calls pop surrealism, is akin to Salvador Dal铆 in an antic mood. Pop media is clearly an influence: from the acid-tinged whimsy of Edward Gorey and jittery lines of cartoonist Gahan Wilson to the offbeat wit of Maurice Sendak and Charles Addams. Burton鈥檚 German Expressionist sensibility is indebted to early films like Fritz Lang鈥檚 鈥�Metropolis鈥� (adapted in the menacing set of 鈥淏atman鈥�).
The show is so packed with eye candy, it鈥檚 like a circus and costume party
mashed into one eye-popping spectacle. And the inhabitants of Burtonia? Oyster Boy whose head is shaped like a clamshell, Charred Girl (a carbonized sculpture, wiry as a Giacometti sculpture), and a pink tree dripping with sea horses. It鈥檚 like a Curiosity Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
A character in Burton鈥檚 鈥�Charlie and the Chocolate Factory鈥� proclaims, 鈥淐andy doesn鈥檛 have to have a point. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 candy.鈥� But this exhibition, despite the ample fun quotient, does have a point. It shows the vast range of Burton鈥檚 creative output,
on paper and onscreen, and his consistent concerns in whichever media.
Burton鈥檚 depressed superhero Stainboy (the hero of six animated shorts) faces adult disapproval but perseveres in his do-good missions. Yet he only succeeds in leaving a stain wherever he goes. In the fantasies he creates, Burton 鈥� although hardly a real caped crusader 鈥� empathizes with such underdogs and freaks. His uncompromising films leave not a stain but an indelible mark on our culture.
His high school English teacher was prescient in a summation of the teenage Burton鈥檚 essay 鈥淗umor in America.鈥� He wrote: 鈥淕ood job; some good original material well arranged.鈥�
