News & Events

September 19, 2012
The New York Times

Tim Burton, at Home in His Own Head

IT would be a tremendous disappointment if Tim Burton’s inner sanctum turned out to be a sterile environment, barren except for a telephone on its cold white floor; or a cubicle with a “World’s Greatest Dad” coffee mug. Instead, the workplace of the filmmaker behind invitingly grim delights like “Beetlejuice” and “Edward Scissorhands” is a definitive Burtonesque experience: on a hill here in north London, behind a brick wall and a mournful tree, in a Victorian residence that once belonged to the children’s book illustrator Arthur Rackham, it lies at the top of a winding staircase guarded by the imposing portraits of Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee. Its décor is best characterized as Modern Nonconformist (unless Ultraman toys and models of skeletal warriors are your thing), and when the master of the house greets you, his drinking glass will bear a poster image for “The Curse of Frankenstein.”  Read story

September 19, 2012
The List

Revisiting: Frankenweenie (1984) (4 stars)

Tim Burton’s original Frankenstein tribute is lovingly constructed, despite its troubled past.

It’s hard to know what Disney were thinking when they took on Tim Burton in 1979. Freshly graduated from CalArts (alongside future Pixar bods John Lasseter and Brad Bird, as well as The Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick), Burton had already shown a flair for the macabre with his mad scientist cartoon Stalk of the Celery Monster. This was followed in 1982 by stop motion short Vincent, in which a young boy dreams of becoming a maniacal villain in the Vincent Price mould. So the studio shouldn’t really have been surprised when, two years later, Burton delivered the thirty-minute live action short Frankenweenie.  Read story

September 14, 2012
The New York Times

THE morning of “The Rite of Spring” premiere, on May 29, 1913, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Le Figaro predicted that ballet would deliver “a new thrill which will surely raise passionate discussion” and “leave all true artists with an unforgettable impression.” That turned out to be one of the greatest understatements of the new artistic century. The passionate discussion began during the first few bars of the music, as derisive laughter rose from the seats, and soon grew into an uproar that sent Stravinsky fleeing the hall in disgust.  Read story

September 12, 2012
Architect Magazine

If drama is your thing, you should follow the history of museums and patronage in Los Angeles. The controversies include censorship, the 1975 financial collapse of the Pasadena Art Museum, and the present ongoing turmoil with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles.  Read story