Tim Burton, the man who turns nightmares into Oscar nominations, is the subject of the latest show at the Design Museum.
And it gets two severed, grotesquely macabre thumbs up.
It would be weird if it wasn’t great to be frank, given that A) Tim Burton’s quirkily gothic style practically begs to being exhibited, and B) the show itself has been on tour across the globe for the past decade, being continually refined & expanded, until culminating in this grand final stop.
The show starts, appropriately, at the beginning. Tim Burton was born in a Hollywood suburb in 1955, and it’s no accident that his career has apparently been one big attempt to tear up the edges of the cookie-cutter he was raised in – despite the fact that that very career was born in Hollywood too. He started out working for Disney in his early animation days, and you’ll get to see his childhood neighbourhood, his earliest works, and more.
You’ll then move on to see a collection of his influences (Edward Gorey, British Hammer Horror films, Japanese monster movies, etc.), and although it isn’t mentioned as a direct inspiration, it feels as if there’s a Roald Dahl-esque mischievous flair to Tim Burton’s work too, crystallised in his own version of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.
From there it spans more of his career, and there’s a lot to see with some 500+ artefacts on show, much of which is drawn from Burton’s own personal archives. Highlights span from his own desk (cluttered with sketches and models) through to Michelle Pfeiffer’s original leather Catwoman costume, Edward Scissorhands’ gloves, and sculptures from his MOMA exhibition that feel plucked from a haunted pop-up book, and which are displayed along a hypnotic hallway of tilted doorways.
But objects aside, it’s the drawings that stand out the most. They’re everywhere, from start to finish, from the sixties to the present moment, and they’re all absolutely wonderful insights into his whimsically odd mind, with exaggerated, angular characters who are both eerie and endearing.
All told, you get the strong impression that Tim Burton may not have evolved much as an artist (you could rearrange his works into a Dada-esque jumble, and they’d still be stylistically coherent) but that doesn’t really matter. He’s found his niche, and he owns it. Even movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas – which wasn’t even directed by him, but rather by collaborator Henry Selick – feels like Tim Burtons’s mind spilled onto celluloid. The singular core of his work is that he’s drawn to the beautifully flawed, oddly vulnerable monsters. With a few exceptions, there’s nothing predatory or particularly menacing about most of his creations.
But the best part? Might be that it’s right next door to the Barbie exhibition. It’s a union so oddly off-kilter and satisfying, Tim Burton would definitely approve.
NOTE: The World Of Tim Burton is showing at the Design Museum from 25th October 2024 until 21st April 2025. You can find out more and get tickets (£19.69) at the Design Museum website.
The Design Museum | 224-238 Kensington High Street, London W8 6AG
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