From the official website of The Museum of Modern Art:
Taking inspiration from popular culture, Tim Burton (American, b. 1958) has reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as an expression of personal vision, garnering for himself an international audience of fans and influencing a generation of young artists working in film, video, and graphics. This exhibition explores the full range of his creative work, tracing the current of his visual imagination from early childhood drawings through his mature work in film. It brings together over seven hundred examples of rarely or never-before-seen drawings, paintings, photographs, moving image works, concept art, storyboards, puppets, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera from such films as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman, Mars Attacks!, Ed Wood, and Beetlejuice, and from unrealized and little-known personal projects that reveal his talent as an artist, illustrator, photographer, and writer working in the spirit of Pop Surrealism. The gallery exhibition is accompanied by a complete retrospective of Burton’s theatrical features and shorts, as well as a lavishly illustrated publication.
In advance of delving into my critical analysis, I should first confess that I have no intention, (or even remote interest, for that matter), in refuting any of the information stated above. In fact, I think it might even be useful for our purposes of critical engagement to acknowledge the validity of the aforementioned text. So, yes, Tim Burton does take inspiration from popular culture and yes, Tim Burton has garnered for himself an international audience of fans and lastly, yes, it is also true that Tim Burton is influencing a generation of young artists working in film, video, and graphics.
I do, however, feel obligated to address the ways in which the above text have signaled the presence of a rather large, and quite obtrusive, elephant in the gallery. My present concern is not so much related to the message - “Come see the Tim Burton exhibition!” - as it is related to the medium of the message: The Museum of Modern Art. And it is here, with respect to this medium in particular, a complex problem, or perhaps set of problems, arise/s, because if the medium truly is the message, then what is the “message” of a Tim Burton retrospective at MoMA?
In my attempt to decipher such a message, many questions came to mind: Is MoMA having a Tim Burton exhibition because of its potential for revenue? How much does the potential revenue determine whether or not an exhibition will be held at MoMA? Isn’t the work of Tim Burton a little too mainstream for MoMA? How mainstream is too mainstream for museum culture? Does the museum need to examine and possibly re-evaluate or critique its inclusion of mainstream (read: commercial) culture? Does any of the work of Tim Burton even belong in MoMA, let alone an entire exhibition? Can the work of Tim Burton even be considered art in the first place?
At the risk of coming off as the quintessential, holier-than-thou art snob and all around fuddy-duddy, I contend that no, the work of Tim Burton does not belong in the Museum of Modern Art. For my fellow art snobs and fuddy-duddies in arms, the reasoning behind this assertion is implicit. In essence, the work of Burton is the epitome of Greenbergian kitsch: “popular, commercial art and literature with their chromeotypes, magazine covers, illustrations, ads, slick and pulp fiction, comics, Tin Pan Alley music, tap dancing, Hollywood movies, etc., etc.”
As someone who came of age in the 1990s, I can attest to the inescapability of the “Tim Burton aesthetic” within contemporary youth culture. And, for our purposes specifically, I believe that this uber-kitschy Burton aesthetic can safely be equated to that of Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post aesthetic (as cited by Greenberg). A marked example of Burton’s stylistic omnipresence in contemporary visual culture is the large amount of “Burtonesque” merchandise that is sold in the immensely popular (and obviously profitable) chain store, Hot Topic (see photos). By having successfully appropriated and made commodities of the “Tim Burton aesthetic,” or “goth aesthetic,” or “punk aesthetic” (an aesthetic that had at one time, in its purest form, been a marker of cultural dissent and anti-consumerism), Hot Topic stands as a remarkable example of kitsch-peddling. From the Hot Topic official website:
The Birth of the Loudest Store in the Mall
It all started in 1988. A ton of teen retail accessory stores filled the malls, but there wasn't a cool music-inspired accessory store for both guys and girls. Then came Hot Topic.
As 1990 rolled around, adding apparel seemed like a no-brainer. What better way than to add the ultimate music fan essential - band tees. Imagine how our customers flipped when they were able to purchase Bauhaus, The Cure, TSOL, and Depeche Mode rock t-shirts at Hot Topic. Within a year, we had about 50 different band titles, along with rock-inspired clothing lines such as Lip Service and Serious. Today we have a growing line of apparel and accessories that includes band tees, band merch, teen retail such as shorts, swimwear, capris, pants, shoes and more.
As we expanded, we discovered that customers were equally drawn to the underground cartoon, cult movie, and comic book scenes. It was a unique culture fans could call their own, so we brought the world of South Park, Care Bears, Superman, SpongeBob SquarePants and tons of other pop icons into our Hot Topic stores.
In 1996, with about 60 teen retail stores, Hot Topic became a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ under the symbol HOTT. The cash from our public offering allowed us to expand to the over 600 teen retail stores we have today. Check out our store locator to find the location nearest you.
At Hot Topic, you'll find a passion for music in everything we do, and you'll see that our customers share that same passion. It's in our stores. It's at HQ. It's in our distribution centers. It's in our products. It's Everything About the Music.
Now that you've read about our origins, we think you're ready to shop. So where do you want to start?
They think we’re ready to shop? Ewww, right?
Although the emergence of Hot Topic has, without question, signaled the final nail in the coffin of punk,[1] what remains to be determined is whether MoMA’s Tim Burton exhibition has signaled the final nail in the coffin of the museum. While I certainly hold firm to my assertion that, due to its supreme kitschiness, the work of Tim Burton does not belong in the Museum of Modern Art, I am also aware that it is perhaps this same kitschiness that might be the very reason the work or Tim Burton does belong in the Museum of Modern Art. Why? Because a Tim Burton exhibition will bring in more revenue, which in turn, will allow MoMA to (I hope) continue to hold exhibitions that are, well, not quite as kitschy and profit driven.
[1] For many, however, punk was long dead even decades before Hot Topic began to spread like cancer through the malls of America. British band Crass might have been the first to pen punk’s epitaph with a song on their first LP that was called “Punk is Dead." Ironically, “Punk is Dead,” which was released in 1978, was probably written merely a year or two after the birth of punk. Retrospectively, the first verse seems to have been a quite accurate prediction of the inevitable commodification of punk, the byproducts of which have included companies like Hot Topic:
“Yes, that's right, punk is dead, It's just another cheap product for the consumers head. Bubblegum rock on plastic transistors, Schoolboy sedition backed by big time promoters. CBS promote the Clash, But it ain't for revolution, it's just for cash.
Punk became a fashion just like hippy used to be. And it ain't got a thing to do with you or me.”
No comments:
Post a Comment