Much like Frankenweenie and the Corpse Bride, Tim Burton’s art show is getting reanimated—and it’s coming back better than ever.
For the first time in nearly a decade, fans of Burton’s filmography, dark doodles, macabre set design, fiendish characters and massive installations of ravenous, sharp-toothed worms can glimpse the auteur’s artwork up close in North America, thanks to a retrospective in Las Vegas next year. During the four-month run of “Tim Burton @ the Neon Museum,” fans can glimpse original art pieces from the filmmaker who brought us nightmares and films like Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Mars Attacks! and The Nightmare Before Christmas, including new, never-before-seen works and large-scale sculptures.
UPDATE: Tickets are on sale now.
Burton’s work is no stranger to a tour; his fine art and memorabilia from his films snaked their way through metropolitan museums from 2009 to 2013, landing in often sold-out runs at LACMA, MoMA and Paris’s Cinémathèque, among others. But in his Las Vegas exhibition, pieces will be spread across the iconic museum’s campus: the museum’s outdoor Boneyard exhibition space, its adjacent North Gallery and the visitors’ center.
And because the Neon Museum is unlike any of the previous homes for Burton’s mad works—what with its gargantuan neon signs sprouting out of the desert—this exhibition, which runs October 15, 2019, through February 15, 2020, will be a collaborative showing that features site-specific staging. Ticket cost and booking information is currently unavailable, but keep your eyes on the museum’s social media for updates and announcements.
“To say we’re flattered that Mr. Burton has chosen our museum for this exhibition would be an understatement,” the Neon Museum’s president and CEO, Rob McCoy, says in a statement. “But when you think about it, Tim is one of the few artists who can match the great imagination of Las Vegas.”
Not even the belligerent Doctor Finkelstein could argue with that.
Take a peek at some of Burton’s previous fine-art installations, below, while you make plans for your Vegas trip.
Photograph: Courtesy the Neon Museum Las Vegas
Photograph: Courtesy the Neon Museum Las Vegas
Photograph: Courtesy the Neon Museum Las Vegas
Photograph: Courtesy the Neon Museum Las Vegas
Photograph: Courtesy the Neon Museum Las Vegas
“Tim Burton @ the Neon Museum” will run from October 15, 2019 through February 15, 2020. The Neon Museum in Las Vegas is located at 770 N Las Vegas Blvd.