Tim Burton @ MoMA

Hey guys! This is my first post, so I may be doing this completely incorrectly. Hope this works!

Anyway, MoMA is currently running a pretty detailed Tim Burton exhibit in New York, and because he's a filmmaker who has always been pretty concerned with the term "grotesque," I thought it might be valuable to talk about my experience at the exhibit.

Here's a link to the gallery, so you can check it out for yourselves: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/timburton/

First off, on a pretty basic level, I was struck by his artistic output; I had assumed that the exhibit would be comprised of stills from his movies, props, character models, etc.... Apparently, he does a whole lot more than that. There were drawings, paintings, sculptures, even some photographs. But the theme was pretty consistently an examination of the grotesque, the creepy, the dowright unsettling.

One thing I noticed was that Burton almost always opts to portray some degree of physical grotesqueness in his work. I think Erin mentioned in class that in certain cultures beautiful women were conceived of as being grotesque because of the actions they engaged in, or the physicality they embodied. With Burton, the grotesqueness was obvious. There were images of giant monsters, deformed clowns, disproportionate mothers, all drawn in the heavily stylized fashion that Burton is known for. More often than not, the art basically took on the form of portraiture, with the subject occupying most of the canvas or, if it didn't, the fringes outside the main subject remaining unpainted. There was almost no emphasis on scenery or action; all the attention was meant to be drawn to the physical ugliness of the subjects.

But this ugliness was so over-the-top and stylized that it really bordered on being comical. When we first entered the exhibit, we noticed pockets of little kids working their way through the artwork and we were shocked that their parents brought them. After about half-an-hour of taking the time to look around for ourselves, it seemed less strange for kids to be there. Most of the work was so grotesque, so downright absurd, that it freely moved from being threatening to being amusing. Which would make sense, given Burton's role as a filmmaker; whether he likes it or not, he's certainly in the business to entertain.

-Chris