Monday, October 31, 2011

New Korean Art at The Museum of Arts & Design, NYC + Understanding Milton Resnick + Turkey Chili


Korean Eye: Energy and Matter - Kim Hyun Soo - "Breik" 2008 
Sculpture is made of epoxy over steel, human hair, fur, oil paint and water based paint.
On view at the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC until February 2012.


ART at "MAD"
The Museum of Arts & Design
Now Showing: "Korean Eye" 


Korean Eye: Energy and Matter - Park Seung Mo - "Bicycle", 2005
Made of Aluminum wire, fiberglass, lifecasting. Image courtesy of the artist.
On view at MAD until February 2012.




Korean Eye: Energy and Matter is the current exhibition at The Museum of Arts and Design. “MAD” is an art museum which explores the blurred zone between art, design and crafts. For more information on "MAD" NYC, please see our Postscript section at the end of this issue.

The exhibition, Korean Eye: Energy and Matter, shines a spotlight on new work by 21 emerging and established contemporary Korean artists and brings together photography, painting, video, and mixed media. It will be on view at MAD from November 1, 2011 through February 19, 2012. (A previous version of Korean Eye was shown at the Saatchi Gallery in London and in Seoul and Singapore.)

This show reflects a new era of diversity in Korean life, politics, and culture, plus offers a unique appreciation of Korea's rapidly developing artistic aesthetic in the modern Korean culture.

Korean Eye: Energy and Matter is accompanied by a 389-page book. The book showcases a collection of work by seventy-five contemporary Korean artists and features artist' biographies and statements. In conjunction with the exhibition, MAD will offer a range of lectures, docent tours, and a related film program.

Below are more of the contemporary art pieces in the exhibition, Korean Eye: Energy and Matter



Ji Yong Ho - "Bull Man 4", 2010
Used Tires, Synthetic Resin, Steel
Courtesy Gana Art Gallery, Korea



Choi TaeHoon - "Dual Skin Project", 2009
Stainless Steel Installation Coat, Table, Sofa.
Photo courtesy of the artist



Hong Young - "In Procession" (cropped) 2010
Embroidery, acrylic, digital print on cotton fabric
Photo courtesy of the artist



Jang Seun Hyo - "Mash in!-episode" (cropped) 2011
Digital Pigmented Print, Mulasec, Laser Cutting
Courtesy of Hzone Gallery, Korea



Jang Seung Hyo - "Uptown Girl", 2010
Resin, fiberglass, digital pigmented
print on cloth, Dupont clear coating.
Courtesy of Hzone Gallery, Korea



Ayoung Kim 
"Accept North Korea
Into The Necular Club
Or Bomb It Now,
11th of Oct. 2006" 
(cropped) 
Photograph
Lightjet Print
Courtesy of the artist
.


Inbai Kim
"Shake your eyes,
and devote them to your heart", 2010
Plaster, wood, medium-density fiberboard
Courtesy of the artist
& Arorio Gallery, Korea (cropped) 



Joon Kim
"Bird land - Chanel" (detail) 2009
Digitally collaged photo, C-print
Courtesy of the artist.



Koh Myung Keun - "The One-1" 2009
Digital Photo Collage printed on acetate.
Courtesy of the artist.



Lee Jaehyo - "0121-1110=111038"
Large chestnut wood inlay
8' x 4' x 4'
Courtesy of the artist

Translation series (detail)



Shin Meekyoung - "Translation series", 2009
Installation.
Vases are made of carved soap, 
pigment & varnish
Courtesy of the artist.


Cryptic Fog
from an Artistic Genius.
Understanding Milton Resnick!
The large scale painting, "SWAN" by Milton Resnick


New York artist David Reed wrote about Milton Resnick in Art in America magazine and Resnick's lessons about painting and thinking as an artist. Resnick spoke in complicated, cryptic comments regarding art, which took the students years to understand. Resnick would also correct the student's paintings by painting over them. All of this happened at the New York Studio School in the 1960s. (The N.Y. Studio School was formed when a group of painting students left Pratt, thinking that a pure studio experience, with guest artists coming in to teach them, would create the best art education.)

Resnick





Reed first met Resnick while riding the elevator up to the NYSS studio / classroom. The following is Reed's account of that experience: 

... A limping homeless person entered the elevator. His face was emaciated and pale, framed by long black hair that hung over the collar of a ragged, greasy overcoat. I expected him to get out and panhandle on one of the lower floors.... But he remained in the elevator until we both got off. Perhaps he had once been a painter, I thought to myself. As he exited the elevator, I was able to get a better look at his face. His features and gestures reminded me of the French writer Antonin Artaud as he appeared in old photographs. 

I followed this man over to where a group of students were at work on their paintings. He went first over to a female student, who was sitting on a stool, painting a small brown cubist still life on a tall easel.... I edged forward to hear what the transient was saying. He placed his hand on her canvas and scratched his nails over the painting, breaking the dried surface and smearing the underlying wet paint. Then placing his hands under the tails of his overcoat, he bent low, bowing to her while raising his coat behind him as if he were a huge bird and said:  "You have to break through the surface! Oh, I know, you think you’ll fall through the floor and end up in hell. But you won’t. You’ll be right here in this room!” The female student backed away from the transient in horror. Some students ran for help, others tried to grab him by the elbows and escort him back the elevator. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said. “You’ve misunderstood. I’m Milton Resnick. You asked me to come to teach.”





Resnick taught the students well, in his odd and hard-to-understand style. Some of Resnick's quotes follow. I think you will see why Reed commented, "I felt, just on the verge of understanding, but at the same time was not sure that I understood anything at all. He used terms that could have many meanings, making his points indirectly through metaphors and stories. (Did he mean this or perhaps that? A confirmation never came from Resnick.) I had never heard anything as compelling or profound." The students had hours of discussions afterwards, trying to restate and understand what Resnick had said to them.

Resnick told us that we had to decide between two ways of being painters. You could either “climb the ladder of art, struggle and sacrifice to make great works,” or “get on the moving belt, just move, you and the painting which equals your brain.” It took me a long time to figure out that he disapproved of the first and approved of the second.

Resnick told us that, as younger painters, we should put on “the shirt of Abstract Expressionism.” Each of us would then have to admit, “I can’t understand this shirt. It doesn’t fit my mind." Only then could we get on that moving belt. 

Milton Resnick was one of the last survivors of the first generation of the New York Abstract Expressionists. Born in Russia, Resnick and his family left and arrived in New York City in 1922 at age five. He settled in Brooklyn with his family and attended public school where a teacher re-named him from his birth name of Rachmiel and nickname of Milya to Milton. At age 14, he enrolled in the commercial art program at the Pratt Institute Evening School of Art in Brooklyn, but a teacher there suggested he switch to fine arts, so the next year he enrolled in the American Artists' School in New York City. Ad Reinhardt, future Abstract Expressionist, was a classmate, and they shared a budding interest in abstraction.

Resnick's father forbid any expression from his son of wanting to be an artist and faced with this disapproval of his commitment to painting, Resnick moved out in 1934 when he was 17. He supported himself as an elevator boy and continued at the American Artists' School, where he was given a small studio room and each day provided with materials left behind by students attending night classes. Resnick worked as and artist until age 87. Milton Resnick committed suicide on March 12, 2004.

(Sources: Based on an essay originally published in Art in America, written by David Reed - a New York-based painter; and from Wikipedia.)

FOOD:
“Less is More Chili”
Beautiful, Simple Turkey Chili


It's chilly outside meaning it is also the season for "chili" and chili cook-offs. Here is my turkey chili recipe, simple, delicious and meaty! It takes about an hour start to finish to prepare, but is worth it.

1 Package of ground lean Turkey (1.25 lbs)
1 Large Onion, diced
1 Green Bell Pepper, diced
2 Stalks of Celery, diced
2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 Tbls of Steak Seasoning mix (cracked pepper, garlic salt, sea salt, onion flakes + ground coriander, dill & caraway seeds)
1 Can of Hot Chili Beans in sauce (15 oz, drained - reserve liquid)
2 Cans of Diced Tomatoes (14.5 oz each, drained - reserve liquid)
1 Rounded tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
1/2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
10 shakes of Original Tobasco Hot Sauce
4 oz of Organic Tomato Catsup
1/4 tsp of liquid smoke
Salt & Pepper to taste

In a large high edged skillet cook the ground turkey in 2 Tbs of olive oil, add the steak seasoning over the meat. Chopping and stirring the meat until it has seperated into small kernels and just until the last of the pink dissappears. Pour cooked turkey into a bowl for later. Spray the pan with cooking oil or pour in a little olive oil and saute the diced onions, pepper and celery stirring occasionally until they start to brown. Add the canned tomatoes to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes to sweeten the tomatoes. Add the Chili Powder, Red Pepper Flakes, Ground Cumin, Paprika, Ground Cinnamon, liquid smoke and 10 shakes of Tobasco Hot Sauce. Add the beans and the cooked turkey to the pan and mix completely. Cook for 5 more minutes stirring occasionally. Add the catsup. Taste for seasoning, add Salt & Pepperto taste. 

Serve this chili straight-up, plain without being topped with cheese, onions or any other condiments - just beautiful, simple, delicious chili.

Until later,
Jack


POSTSCRIPT:
More about "MAD"
The Museum of Arts & Design, 
2 Columbus Circle, NYC



Accredited by the American Association of Museums since 1991, MAD focuses on contemporary creativity and the ways in which artists and designers from around the world transform materials through processes ranging from the artisanal to the digital. For nearly half a century, MAD has served as the country’s premier institution dedicated to the collection and exhibition of contemporary objects created in media such as clay, glass, wood, metal, and fiber.

The seed for MAD was planted almost 70 years ago, when Aileen Osborn Webb—the nation’s premier craft patron and benefactor—established the American Craftsmen’s Council in 1942. In the decades that followed, MAD broadened its vision and expanded the scope of its exhibitions and programs. In 1979, MAD was renamed the American Craft Museum, reflecting its position, and in 1986, moved to a new location in four floors of a new building at 40 West 53rd Street. The new Museum’s space—designed by Roche-Dinkeloo, with an interior created by Fox & Fowle Architects—doubled the space of the original quarters. The opening exhibition was Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical, which articulated the direction of MAD’s new era. Some of the objects were purely functional, while others placed a higher value on visual expression and conceptual content. Today, MAD celebrates materials and processes that are embraced by practitioners in the fields of craft, art and design, as well as architecture, fashion, interior design, technology, performing arts, and art / design-driven industries.

MAD's building on Columbus Circle.


The institution’s new name, adopted in 2002, reflects this wider spectrum of interest, as well as the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of MAD’s permanent collection and exhibition programming. In September, 2008, MAD opened the doors to its new home at 2 Columbus Circle to the public. With triple the exhibition space, and new amenities including a greatly expanded store, a 144-seat theater, and a restaurant, MAD is finally able to satisfy the growing public demand for its programs. 2 Columbus Circle’s design, accomplished  in collaboration with architect Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture, weaves MAD into the social and cultural fabric of the newly revived Columbus Circle and its surrounding neighborhoods. The design includes a new façade that features textured terracotta panels and transparent fritted glass, materials that express MAD’s history of honoring the relationship between materials and maker. 
Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.madmuseum.org
For more information on the current exhibits at MAD visit http://collections.madmuseum.org/

ARTSnFOOD All rights reserved. Concept & Original Text © copyright 2011 Jack A. Atkinson under all International intellectual property and copyright laws. Images are ©  copyright individual artists, fabricators, respective owners or assignees.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Tim Burton Loves Halloween + Spooky: Movies, Sushi & Wine

Halloween's biggest fan is artist / filmmaker Tim Burton!


ART for
HALLOWEEN

Costume Ideas:
This Armored All Terrain Star Wars POOCH costume went viral on the Web.











Actual Star Wars Armored All Terrain Transports
(art from wikipedia)
Glow-stick people

Bathing Beauties in Balloon Bubbles

Fun with Paper Mache (formed over a balloon with acrylic paint)

This guy enjoyed making dioramas in elementary school!

Last minute costume idea!

HOW TO FACE PAINT! 
Create a black & white skull face 
for a fast Halloween costume.
Just add a long sleeve black hoodie

and black pants.
Graftobian Costumes Skull Makeup Kit
$20.99 at  www.drugstore.com

TIM BURTON 
The Dark Knight of Art & Film!



If there ever was an artist who loved Halloween as a child and then never grew up, it is Tim Burton. He has become the "Edgy Disney" of Gothic and German Expressionistic aesthetics. His focus is on dark fables, fairy tales and fantasies. Last year MoMA NY featured his artworks and films in a one-man exhibition. Most of us know Burton for his stop-motion animated films (claymation) like Nightmare Before Christmas and his other fantasy feature films. 

Tim Burton at his exhibition.
So many characters in his films look as though the character stuck their finger into a light socket - as you can see, that wild hair is very much like Burton's own hairdo!

 Tim Burton's Official Website - http://www.timburton.com
Exhibition Catatlog

Exhibition entrance at MoMA.

Tim Burton's "Halloween Flavored" Films:
• Beetlejuice (1988)
• Edward Scissorhands (1990)
• Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
• Mars Attacks! (1996)
• Sleepy Hollow (1999)
• Corpse Bride (2005)
• Sweeney Todd: 
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Other Films:
• Batman (1989)
• Ed Wood (1994)
• Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)
• Batman Returns (1992)
• Planet of the Apes (2001)
• Big Fish (2003)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
• Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Early Short Films:
• Vincent (1982) about Vincent Price  
• Frankenweenie (1984)
Music Video: 
• Bones for The Killers (2006) 

Graphic Book: 
• The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy 
and Other Stories (1997)   

3-D Collectibles:
Tim Burton’s Tragic Toys for Girls and Boys (2003) 

Have your own party!
Consider renting some movies and have your own party. See the POSTSCRIPT section at the end.

HALLOWEEN
FOOD
Gummy body parts made to look like Sushi from Candy Warehouse.

SPOOKI SUSHI
for your party!
GONG... dinner is served! Introducing body parts candy sushi featuring chewy eyeball and brain rolls wrapped in gummy seaweed and severed fingers, noses, and ears gently nestled on little beds of gummy rice. Package includes chop sticks for added authenticity.... sorry, candy wasabi not included. The perfect Halloween party favor! 8 pieces $4.
Candy Warehouse
Code: FCCC20972
http://www.candywarehouse.com/

Halloween Party WINE!


SPANISH DEMON TEMPRANILLO $10
Label "Art" fits the name!
Mixed reviews for taste:
1) "Delicious"
2) "Tastes Like Hell"

Made 100% of the grape variety Tempranillo coming from 25 year old family-owned vineyards, which belong to the family San Pedro, located close to Laguardia, a Medieval village in the heart of Rioja Alavesa, Spain. 

Cost Plus World Market 
1-877-967-5362
www.worldmarket.com

German Riesling in Cat shaped bottles.
BLACK CAT RIESLING $12
Mosalland 2007 Riesling, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Cat Bottles 750ml 
Bottles are fun and filled with a good quality German Riesling. Bottles are available in Black & Red. (For other occasions also available in White, Blue, Green, and Pink cat shaped bottles.) 

Cost Plus World Market 
1-877-967-5362
www.worldmarket.com



THE VELVET DEVIL MERLOT $12 
PURE VELVET! Taste comments: Milk chocolate, wild blackberry, baking spice, rose oil... beautifully perfumed velvet in a glass...! 

Charles Smith Wines
35 South Spokane St
Walla Walla, WA 
509-526-5267

http://www.charlessmithwines.com





Until later,
Jack

ARTSnFOOD All rights reserved. Concept & Original Text © copyright 2011 Jack A. Atkinson under all International intellectual property and copyright laws. Images are ©  copyright individual artists, fabricators, respective owners or assignees.

POSTSCRIPT
Films relating to Tim Burton.
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. 1985. 
With his first feature, Burton established himself as a director with a unique personal style. Pee-wee embarks on a cross country search for his missing bicycle, a scenario that allows Burton to indulge in whimsical set pieces and extravagant sight gags. Like the elaborate Rube Goldberg–esque contraption (a familiar Burton motif) that facilitates Pee-wee’s morning routine, the simple plot unfolds in visually complex ways, culminating in a zany ride through the Warner Bros. back lot. 90 min.  

Beetlejuice. 1988. 
A recently deceased small-town couple are required to haunt their own house for 125 years, but when they are unable to frighten the insufferable urbanites who move in, they hire a “bio-exorcist” to reclaim their home. The director’s cynical version of hell as a bureaucratic waiting room is leavened by such sophomorically gruesome delights as shrunken heads and flattened 
corpses, creating an atmosphere that shuttles between the world-weary attitudes of adulthood and the unbridled imaginative possibilities of youth. 92 min.  

Batman. 1989. 
Eschewing the campiness of the popular 1960s TV show, Burton’s cerebral, witty take on the Caped Crusader reinvigorated the Batman franchise. Burton, along with production designer Anton Furst, applied his eye for inventive set design to psychologically darker material than in his previous films to create an iconically twisted, phantasmagorical Gotham City. 126 min.  

Vincent. 1982. Screenplay by Tim Burton, Voice of Vincent Price.  
In this stop-motion animated short, a bored suburban boy imagines a world worthy of Edgar Allan Poe. 6 min. 

Edward Scissorhands. 1990.  
Arguably Burton’s most personal film, Edward Scissorhands delves into one of his most recurrent themes: disconnection from the world at large and the search for true identity. Incapable of directly touching others with his razor-sharp fingers, Edward is the physical manifestation of spiritual isolation. When a kind Avon lady discovers him and introduces him to suburbia, his ability to shape things—hedges, hair, ice—into wondrous sculptures engenders a brief welcome. But his 
acceptance is short-lived in this parable of teenage angst and alienation. 105 min.  

Batman Returns. 1992. 
The sequel surpasses the original as Burton plumbs deeper into the Dark Knight’s psyche. The complex villains Catwoman (a mousy secretary who unleashes her inner ferocity) and the Penguin (who embraces his penchant for chaos while secretly craving the acceptance he never received from his parents) contribute surprising emotional depth to the comic-book setting. 126 min.  

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. 1993. 
With its ghoulish imagery and manic-depressive antihero, The Nightmare Before Christmas straddles the line between grim children’s fable and gentle horror story. Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, has grown weary of his crown. Obsessed with his recent discovery of this thing called “Christmas,” 
he attempts to shake off his malaise by usurping the mantle of “Sandy Claws” instead. 76 min.  

Frankenweenie. 1984. 
Transporting Mary Shelley’s classic tale to Southern California, Burton imagines Frankenstein’s monster in the form of a reanimated family pet. 29 min.  

Ed Wood. 1994. 
In this offbeat biopic, Burton depicts the titular “World’s Worst Director” with equal amounts of mockery and sympathy. Although unquestionably portrayed as a filmmaker who relied more on gumption than talent, Burton’s Ed Wood is also an earnest man with an absolute belief in his vision and craft. Armed with pure optimism in the face of abject humiliation and rejection, he is Burton’s nod to unwavering artistic integrity. 127 min.  

Mars Attacks! 1996. 
Aliens (of the green, bulbous-brained, bug-eyed variety) come to Earth, and they do not come in peace. Burton’s hilarious homage to—and parody of—1950s sci-fi B-movies features an ensemble of A-list actors who gamely inhabit outrageous characters. 106 min.  

Sleepy Hollow. 1999. 
Burton’s film transforms Irving’s folktale into a supernatural whodunit, and the original meek schoolteacher, Ichabod Crane, into a priggish New York City constable who is sent up the Hudson River to investigate a series of bizarre murders. The film’s macabre humor melds perfectly with the “stylized naturalism” of Burton’s sumptuous production. 105 min.  

Planet of the Apes. 2001.
Burton’s adaptation of Boulle’s novel about humans in an ape-dominated world features one of his main character archetypes. Astronaut Leo Davidson crash lands on a foreign planet and finds himself a misunderstood outcast among the native humans and their simian masters. 119 min.  

Big Fish. 2003. 
On his deathbed, Edward Bloom retells his life through exaggerated tall tales. This lifelong habit of subjective recollection alienates him from his son Will, who longs to know his “real” father. Burton’s adaptation shifts the focus toward the elder Bloom, a character who fits the mold of Burton’s archetypical flawed and imperfect, yet revered, father. 125 min.  

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 2005. 
Simultaneously one of Burton’s funniest and most poignant films, this perfect union of the sensibilities of Burton and Dahl is filled with unapologetic whimsy, a delight in gruesome humor, and the enduring appeal of the fancies and freedoms of childhood. 115 min.  

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. 2005. 
For his second feature-length stop-motion film, Burton transformed a nineteenth-century European folktale about a man caught between two women—one breathing, one not so much— into a musical filled with exquisitely crafted characters who prove that what appears frightening is often just misunderstood. 76 min.  

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. 2007. 
Burton’s version of a romantic comedy, his film adaptation of Sondheim’s tale of tonsorial terror is replete with the filmmaker’s recurrent visual and thematic motifs. The musical numbers allow for fantastic set pieces that alternate between light and dark, revelatory and horrific, and the twisted narrative sets comedy amid the grotesque. 116 min. 

OTHER FILMS 

The Omega Man. 1971. 
When asked to choose the one film he would bring to a deserted island, Tim Burton playfully recalled this story of the last man on earth. The only human not transformed by a viral epidemic into a light-sensitive creature of the night, Dr. Robert Neville (Heston) walks a razor-thin line between losing his mind and becoming mankind’s savior. 98 min. 

Jason and the Argonauts. 1963. 
In search of the mythical Golden Fleece, Jason and the crew of the Argo face such perils as a living 100–foot statue, bat-winged harpies, and the seven-headed Hydra—all brought to life by exalted special-effects master Ray Harryhausen, one of Tim Burton’s childhood idols. “The stop- motion animation and the kind of reality and scale of it...was really amazing,” says Burton of the film, “[Harryhausen was able to] imbue his monsters with more emotion than most of the actors in those movies.” 104 min.  

Mad Monster Party. 1967. 
This Rankin/Bass stop-motion-animated musical features a campy cavalcade of classic horror characters, including Dracula, the Mummy, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as they plot to gain control of Baron von Frankenstein’s secret weapon during a monster convention. The film’s pun- filled humor shares a kinship with the tone of Tim Burton’s 1980–1986 cartoon drawings. 95 min.   

Frankenstein. 1931. 
This classic Universal horror film, featuring the work of renowned make-up artist Jack Pierce, made an indelible imprint on the young Tim Burton. Frankenstein showcases Karloff as a sympathetic monster whose principal sin is his existence, a theme that resonates throughout many of Burton’s works. 71 min.  

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). 1920.
In one of the landmark films of German Expressionism, a movement that greatly influenced Tim Burton’s visual style, the somnambulist Cesare commits murder under the control of the sinister Dr. Caligari. The theme of the reluctant villain plays a significant role in Burton’s films, in which characters like Catwoman and Sweeney Todd are made into monsters by the wickedness of others. Silent, with piano accompaniment. 71 min.  

Murders in the Rue Morgue. 1932. 
After the success of Dracula (1931), Universal cast Lugosi in this murder mystery, loosely based on Poe’s tale. With roots in Parisian Grand Guignol and hints of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, this film was also an influence on the B-movie director (and Tim Burton subject) Ed Wood, who paid homage to the film in his own Bride of the Monster. Ames plays a variation on Dupin, Poe’s seminal literary detective, who gave rise to the tropes and structure of the classic whodunit—a tradition very much embodied in the Ichabod Crane of Burton’s Sleepy Hollow. 61 min. 

Dracula. 1931. 
This classic adaptation of Stoker’s oft-filmed novel—and the film that kick-started Lugosi’s career 
and Universal’s horror franchise—relies on tried-and-true horror tactics such as chiaroscuro, fog, 
and dramatic reveals to conjure atmosphere and tension. 75 min.  

The Raven. 1935. 
A horror classic based on a story by the genre’s maestro and starring some of its heavy hitters, The Raven also borrows some torturous delights from another Poe masterpiece, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and features prominently in Burton’s Vincent (1982). 61 min.  

Plan 9 from Outer Space. 1959. 
Aliens attempt to take over Earth by bringing Southern Californian corpses to life. One of Hollywood’s most legendary cinematic fiascos, Plan 9 was famously proclaimed the worst movie ever made, and it helped elevate Ed Wood to infamy as the “World’s Worst Director.” 79 min.  

Glen or Glenda. 1953. 
“Glen did wear the dress to the Halloween party. He even took first prize. Then one day, it wasn’t Halloween any longer.” This unintentionally hilarious, quasi-autobiographical faux docu-drama preached for social change and the acceptance of transvestitism. Despite its seemingly random overuse of superimposition and stock footage, plodding dialogue, stilted line readings, and a superfluously-cast Lugosi as an omnipotent puppet master, the film’s true delight lies in its utter earnestness. 65 min.  

Bride of the Monster. 1955. 
Well-known for the production crew’s unauthorized borrowing of a studio prop octopus for its role as the titular monster, this entertainingly inept film features Lugosi—in a dignified performance conjuring up Dracula magnetism—as an evil scientist who plots to create superhumans using an atomic machine. 69 min.  

Pit and the Pendulum. 1961. 
Vincent Price, Tim Burton’s childhood idol and professional muse, stars in this psychologically and viscerally terrifying tale of torture, in which the (Spanish Inquisitorial) sins of the father are revisited upon the son. 80 min.   

The Mummy’s Hand. 1940.  
In this horror comedy, archeologists uncover the tomb of an Egyptian princess only to find it accompanied by a deadly protector. Despite being produced at Universal—and featuring footage of Boris Karloff—The Mummy’s Hand was not a direct sequel to Karl Freund’s The Mummy (1932); the film set out to create its own franchise showcasing the mummy Kharis. 67 min.  

The Creature from the Black Lagoon. 1954. 
Remarkable for its cinematography, this archetypal Universal monster movie pits the iconic half-man / half-fish creature against voyagers on the Amazon. 79 min.  

The Mummy’s Tomb. 1942. 
This sequel to The Mummy’s Hand finds the undead Kharis terrorizing the remaining members of an Egyptian archaeological expedition in America. 60 min.  

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. 1970.  
This Hammer Films action-adventure love story, set in a fantastical prehistory in which cavemen coexist with dinosaurs, is remarkable for Jim Danforth’s stop-motion special effects. Tim Burton recalls standing in line for this film as a child, and it inspired his own amateur stop-motion short film The Island of Dr. Agor (1971). 96 min.  

Revenge of the Creature. 1955.  
The Creature from the Black Lagoon finds love in this sequel, which transports the horror from the Amazon to Florida. 82 min.  

The Towering Inferno. 1974. 
Based on the novels The Tower by Richard Martin Stern, and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia, the world’s tallest building catches fire on opening night, placing its occupants in mortal peril. With a cavalcade of stars and stunning special effects, over-the-top disaster spectacles such as The Towering Inferno were satirized by Burton in Mars Attacks!. 165 min. 

Nosferatu. 1922. 
Based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, a significant German Expressionist film, this adaptation is distinguished by Schreck’s magnificently eerie and ghoulish performance and Murnau’s inventive treatment of Stoker’s material. Silent, 
with piano accompaniment. 81 min. 

The Swarm. 1978. 
This Irwin Allen disaster movie unleashes killer bees on an A-list cast. A sincere thriller marred by unintentional campiness, a pitfall of the genre, Burton plays up films like The Swarm to comedic effect in Mars Attacks!. 116 min. 

Earthquake. 1974. 
Another disaster epic bloated with stars, a popular genre in the 1970s, Earthquake examines several personal stories during the course of a Los Angeles seismic event. Although character- focused, the main appeal of the film lies with the monster quake and its destruction. 123 min. 

The Brain from Planet Arous. 1957. 
An alien brain takes over the body of a nuclear scientist with plans of world domination. This 1950s sci-fi/horror mainstay features the masterful work of monster make-up artist Jack Pierce. 71 min. 

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. 1949. 
Based on The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame, and 
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving - narrated by Bing Crosby.  
The work of Disney’s core animators during its golden age (the famous “Nine Old Men,” a term coined by Walt Disney himself) and with visual effects by Ub Iwerks, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is one of the seminal and influential films of the studio’s animation department. Burton, who started his career as a Disney animator during the end days of this golden age, was clearly inspired by this film’s priggish, nervous Ichabod Crane in his own Sleepy Hollow adaptation. 68 min.  

Scream Blacula Scream. 1973. 
At the neighborhood movie theater, Burton spent much of his childhood watching films such as this blaxploitation horror film, and sequel to Blacula (1972), which finds the titular black prince of shadows awakened by voodoo powers to stalk the earth once again. 96 min. 

The Brain that Wouldn’t Die. 1962.
This gory horror film finds a mad scientist attempting to attach his fiancée's severed, but living, head to a functional body. Severed heads appear as a common motif in Burton’s works, and his predilection may have been informed by a childhood influenced by films such as The Brain that Wouldn’t Die. 82 min. 

Tex Avery cartoons 
The humor and characters in Tex Avery cartoons find resonance and compatriots in Beetlejuice, Batman, and Mars Attacks!.  

Invaders from Mars. 1953. 
Aliens suck victims underground and reprogram their brains to do their bidding in this 1950s sci-fi classic. Invaders from Mars is remarkable for its portrayal of a child as the main protagonist and hero against alien-modified adults, and reflects the conflict between childhood and adulthood, a theme often seen in Burton’s works. 78 min. 


20 Million Miles to Earth. 1957. 
In this science-fiction fantasy, with monster effects by Ray Harryhausen, an American spaceship returning from Venus crash lands on Earth and releases a creature that wreaks havoc yet simultaneously elicits sympathy as it just wants to be left alone. "Ray Harryhausen really is a master. His work—his animation was so beautiful. The creature in 20 Million Miles to Earth—I love that creature" (Burton). 82 min. 
 


(Sources: wikipedia, MoMA Press Department,  Annual New York City Village Halloween Parade website, Marilyn Manson music video, Tim Burton's Officail Website