Batman Returns Tim Burton to MoMA in NYC

Sweeney Todd 2007 Paramount Photo: Leah Gallo

The career of Batman Returns' director, Tim Burton is the focus of a new retrospective gallery exhibition and film series at MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) this fall.

The exhibition will present 700 pieces of Tim Burton’s artwork from his childhood drawings, storyboards, puppets, sketchbooks and cartoons, to screenings of his 14 films over the course of the exhibit.
Tim Burton has directed some of the most psychologically revealing and meaningful films of our times: Vincent (1982), Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Batman Returns (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas (as creator and producer) (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Mars Attacks! (1996), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big Fish (2003), Corpse Bride (2005), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Sweeney Todd among others.

A spiritual hero isn’t only someone who can maintain his connection to spirit on a peaceful mountain top but  who can keep his connection even during rush hour in the middle of Grand Central Station. Tim Burton has maintained this personal connection to his authentic self within the miasma of Hollywood culture; a spiritual warrior in the midst of the mundane.

His strength lies in the fact that he only directed films that meant something to him. In his interview with David Breskin in the book, Tim Burton: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series) by Kristian Fraga, he says, “People don’t realize, because of the surface way the films look and the cartoonish nature of them, that the only thing that keeps me going through a movie is that these characters mean something to me.”

It is encouraging to know that MoMA is honoring the career of a man whose creative achievements and success arose out of a search for and nurturance of the importance of meaning.

Tim Burton said:

“When I went to see a movie as a kid, I would know a little about it beforehand, and I’d go enter a world that surprised me.”

Interesting metaphor for our soul’s entrance into this movie of our personal lives.

Tim Burton Exhibition MoMA: November 22, 2009-April 26, 2010
For more info: MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art)