"Tim Burton" at MoMA

The relationships between parents and children in Tim Burton’s films are fraught with tension. Think of Jeffrey Jones and Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice, Albert Finney and Billy Crudup in Big Fish, and Batman’s folks, who are killed in the first five minutes of the 1989 movie. But we promise: Your kids will love you for taking them to an exhibition wholly devoted to the fantastical filmmaker.

Opening at MoMA on November 22, "Tim Burton" includes sketches and paintings from the auteur’s teen years and props from his best-known projects. In addition, the museum will screen all of his films.

Burton, who grew up in Southern California, got his start with Disney, but soon found that his visual style was at odds with the studio’s sweet aesthetic. (His designs for The Fox and the Hound were rejected for "looking like roadkill," as he puts it.) Striking out on his own, Burton created an enviably artful oeuvre of live-action and animated works—from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and The Nightmare Before Christmas to Sweeney Todd and Corpse Bride—all of which bear his unmistakable gothic signature.

Is Burton’s work too dark for kids? Definitely not, says assistant curator Ron Magliozzi. "All his work is a conversation between childhood and adulthood," he explains. "Tim himself says that kids get it better than adults do. They appreciate the fantasy elements, even if they’re grotesque."

The retrospective explores Burton’s career as a filmmaker and a visual artist. After proceeding through a Beetlejuice-inspired entryway with carnival-like striped decor and a black-lit room inhabited by Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas, museumgoers enter a section called "Surving Burbank." Here they can peruse artwork made by a teenage Burton as well as a children’s book he made in high school called The Giant Zlig. Also on view are costumes and puppets, including foam-latex, aluminum and steel figures from James and the Giant Peach and his muse Johnny Depp’s outfit from Edward Scissorhands.

The show has few interactives, but Magliozzi insists there’s ample opportunity for learning. "When taken together, the artwork, the design sketches, the props and the movies show kids a lot about the evolution of an artist," he says. "It lets kids say, ‘I can do that.’ They can be inspired by his example."

"Tim Burton" is on view Nov 22, 2009–Apr 26, 2010; the film series runs concurrently. Timed entry tickets (free with regular museum admission) are available at moma.org only, and will not be available at the ticketing desk. While timed entry tickets are not necessary for viewing the exhibit, they will guarantee entry at a specific time; all other ticket holders will be granted entry as space allows.

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