Filmmaker Tim Burton is adept at creating his own unique and bizarre world onscreen, from psychedelic-overload in “Alice in Wonderland”, a dark and creepy environment in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and “Sleepy Hollow”, to a warped suburbia in “Edward Scissorhands”. Now, that one-of-a-kind vision is on display at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which is presenting “Tim Burton”, a comprehensive retrospective exploring the gamut of Burton’s creative output, as a director of live-action and animated films, and as an artist, illustrator, photographer and writer.

The entrance to the new Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA features a piece that exemplifies the world of the filmmaker. (photo by Jose Martinez)

“This exhibition shows the full range of Tim Burton’s extraordinary creativity,” LACMA curator Britt Salvesen said. “Most people have a good sense of his style, but seeing the show demonstrates how persistent his vision is and how evident it was from very early on, before he was even thinking about making full-scale feature films. Many of his recurring themes stem from childhood and adolescence and combine a unique mixture of horror and humor.”

The exhibit consists of more than 700 drawings, paintings, photographs, film and video works, storyboards, puppets, concept artworks, maquettes, costumes, and art from a number of unrealized and little-known personal projects.

A native of Southern California, Burton was influenced by pop culture and fairy tales. Many of the themes that run through his body of work can be traced to advertising, science fiction, horror films, children’s literature and toys, cartoons and comic strips.

“Growing up in Burbank, there wasn’t much of a museum culture. I never visited one until I was a teenager (unless you count the Hollywood Wax Museum),” Burton said in a statement. “I occupied my time going to see monster movies, watching television, drawing, and playing in the local cemetery. Later, when I did start frequenting museums, I was struck by how similar the vibe was to a cemetery. Not in a morbid way, but both have a quiet, introspective, yet electrifying atmosphere. Excitement, mystery, discovery, life and death all in one place. So all these years later, to have this exhibition, to be showing things, some of which weren’t meant to ever be seen, or are just pieces of a larger picture, is very special to me.”

The exhibit will include several works from Burton’s personal archive, as well as from studio and private collections. Hundreds of never-before-exhibited drawings, paintings, sculptures and sketchbooks, as well as film posters from his feature films, accompanied by music specifically composed for the exhibition by Burton’s longtime collaborator, Danny Elfman, will be displayed.

“What’s special about having the exhibit in L.A. is that Tim grew up here,” Salvesen said. “People can see a native son and see how he incorporated his origins into his work. This show is about him as an artist and a visual thinker. The bulk of this show is his drawings.”

Burton collaborated with Salvesen and LACMA to specifically tailor the exhibit to the Resnick Pavilion. Creating a “Burtonesque” environment, the exhibit will include indoor and outdoor installations, including “Balloon Boy”, a 21-foot-tall, 8-foot-diameter creature with multiple eyes.

The exhibit is broken into three sections, each in relation to Burton’s hometown of Burbank. The first area is ”Surviving Burbank”, which begins with the director’s early days and includes studies, drawings, Super 8 mm and 16 mm films, which show the creative energy and invention he experienced as a young artist.

“Beautifying Burbank” shows Burton coming into his own as a creative thinker, as his talent matured during three years of study at CalArts and four years working as an animator at the Walt Disney Studios.

“Beyond Burbank” highlights Burton’s work in feature film. The section features costumes, props, puppets, and concept art from Burton’s career as a celebrated filmmaker.

Throughout the summer, LACMA will also be screening all of Burton’s films.

“It’s important for LACMA to continue in different ways to incorporate film, which is a major art form for the 20th and 21st Centuries,” Salvesen said. “This is another way to approach that. Our intention is make a statement about the film medium. I would like people of all ages to be inspired by the way he thinks through drawing, and letting your ideas flow in visual form.”

The exhibit will be on view May 29 through Halloween weekend and will culminate with a Halloween gala ball.

Organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Los Angeles presentation was made possible in part by LACMA’s Wallis Annenberg Director’s Endowment Fund. LACMA is located at 5905 Wilshire Blvd.

For information, call (323)857-6000, or visit www.lacma.org.