The World Of Tim Burton: sneak peek

Lifting the curtain on the major new Tim Burton exhibition before it opens at London's Design Museum

“I never visited a museum until I was teenager,” said Tim Burton, then opening his first retrospective at MoMo, New York, in 2009. “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 the cemetery. Not in a morbid way, but both have a quiet, introspective, yet electrifying atmosphere. Excitement, mystery, discovery, life, death, all in one place…”

Fast-forward to 2014 and The World Of Tim Burton – a major new exhibition dedicated to Burton’s career as a director, illustrator, painter, photographer and author – was beginning a decade-long world tour in Prague. This autumn, the exhibition makes its final ever stop: landing in London at The Design Museum. Expect to see the best of Burton’s personal archive including drawings, paintings, photographs, set and costume designs, sketchbooks, films and sculptural installations.

From 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure to this year’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice; cult classic poetry collection The Melancholy Death Of Oyster Boy to recent Netflix hit Wednesday, Burton’s design work is as distinctive as it is varied. Its pop surrealism meets circus horror. Camp goth and dark romance. It’s a disgruntled ex-Disney animator channelling Edward Gorey, Dr Seuss, Maurice Sendak, Charles Addams and Max Fleischer into something uniquely his own – a style and a flair that changed pop-culture forever.

Before The World Of Tim Burton arrives in London this October, take a closer look at some of the highlights below.