Tuesday 22 January 2013

Tim Burton and the Seoul Museum of Art

Last weekend I visited the Seoul Museum of Art and saw the recently-opened Tim Burton exhibition. The famous director has, since 2009, showcased his artwork in New York, Paris, Toronto, and Melbourne. Now the exhibition has come to Korea, where Burton has something of a cult following. It contains hundreds of his sketches, drawings and paintings, as well as several props and costumes from his movies. Unfortunately, photography was forbidden inside the exhibition place, so I didn't catch many photos inside. But I did get a few snaps of our approach to the museum as well as some of its other exhibits.

The museum is in a pretty area just near City Hall.
The approach to the museum was lined with paintings.
This sculpture really messed with my head. It depicts three generations of a family in the shape of traditional sauce jars called jangdok. I don't know if it was even the artist's intent for the figures to play tricks with the viewer's eyes, but they certainly did with mine.

Angela at the Tim Burton-themed gate in front of the museum grounds. 
Silent figures among the trees.
Silvanus by Choe U-Ram
Thinking by Bae Hyung-Kyung.

The exhibition was extremely busy inside. We had to get numbered tickets and wait for over an hour before our number was called.
While we waited we checked out one of the free galleries on the first floor. 




Finally entering the exhibition.
This was the only photo I took inside that wasn't entirely blurred; I think I need to practice my stealth-photography some more.
These last few pictures, courtesy of Google Image Search, provide a small sample of the Burton-art that we saw.

Sketches... 
Paintings... 

And film props...such as these gloves from Edward Scissorhands, several Batman costumes, some clay models from Nightmare Before Christmas, and much more.
If you're interested in seeing the exhibition for yourself - and I'd definitely recommend it - it's open until April 14th. I'm not even a huge fan of Burton (at least, not since he tarnished his filmography with some of the stinkers that he directed over the last ten years), but I still enjoyed getting inside his head via the works of art on show, which spanned his whole life from childhood to recent times.

2 comments:

  1. is the exhibit open year round? or did it just come to this museum for a couple month period? Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Unfortunately it was just a temporary exhibit and closed last year. It's previously been shown at several different cities across the world, including Paris, LA and Melbourne, so maybe it will show somewhere else in the future.

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