Burton's babies ... a scene from Beetlejuice at ACMI.Credit: John Woudstra
The Gothic, the classic and the Titanic-size tragic are at the heart of new exhibitions in the southern capital, writes Matt Collins.
MOST film buffs would agree that film director Tim Burton is an eccentric genius, yet seeing some of his creations up close removes any qualifiers - the man is, simply,
a genius. From his Gothic creations for The Nightmare before Christmas to the stunning costumes from Alice in Wonderland, the grandeur of Burton's vision shines in Tim Burton: the Exhibition, now on show at Melbourne's Australian Centre for the Moving Image.
A personal highlight was the chance for a good look at the Batmobile from the director's hit reinvention of Batman in 1989. The 10-year-old in me leapt for joy at standing next to the beautiful winged hot-rod.
The Burton exhibition is a coup for the city. On loan from New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), it is a showcase of the star auteur's most famous works and is part of Melbourne Winter Masterpieces, a series of exhibitions now on in the southern capital. Highlights include works produced by a teenage Burton. Indeed, when he launched the exhibition at the end of June, Burton admitted much of the art on display was never meant to be seen and he likened it to airing his dirty laundry.
Many of these pieces are thrilling because they seem to show the genesis of the Gothic sensibility and dark humour that have become the director's trademark. One early sketch shows a pair of lovers kissing, their faces showing shocked expressions as both heads are impaled by an arrow shot by a malevolent-looking Cupid.
An early cartoon is entitled simply The Gardener but viewers might fancy they can see a prototype of Burton's beloved Edward Scissorhands. And just in case you want to make sure, Johnny Depp's costume from the film is there so you can cross-reference.
The exhibition also features a marvellous carnival tent called The Burtonarium, imagined as an entrance to the director's fantastical world. Warped floors, glowing drawings of unlikely creatures and off-kilter music add to an otherworldly sensation. At The Burtonarium's heart is a sculpture entitled The Carousel, created for the MoMA exhibition.
Burton said he was pleased the show's Melbourne version was a shade darker than that shown in New York but, as you might expect, there is still plenty of light to be seen.
And there is much light in the other major exhibition in Melbourne Winter Masterpieces but it's tempered by the darkest of themes. European Masters: Stadel Museum, 19th-20th Century features stunning art from the Stadel in Frankfurt. The German museum is undertaking an expansion program and has temporarily closed most of its galleries, allowing it to lend 100 works from its permanent collection to the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). It is the first time these works have been seen outside Europe.
Many of the masterpiece-style exhibitions that visit Australia seem to focus on the likes of Monet, Renoir and Degas. While works by these artists are included here, the Stadel collection has a much broader focus.
One standout is the German expressionist Max Beckmann, to whom a room is dedicated. His works show a radical transformation in style after his service as a medic in World War I. His early paintings seem heavily influenced by the impressionists and are sun-filled and beautiful. But that style gives way to a more distorted and muted palette. The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main is beautiful and disturbing, giving an almost claustrophobic effect, with the buildings seeming to close in on the viewer.
But Beckmann can be cheeky, too.
A favourite of some NGV staff is his Double Portrait, which shows two women posing quite stiffly. The joke is in the story behind the painting - it shows the wife and mistress of Beckmann's friend, art gallery director Georg Swarzenski. Swarzenski accepted the work as a gift from his friend to take the painting out of circulation and ensure his wife did not see it.
At this exhibition, earlier works by artists more familiar to Australian audiences are on show. The Luncheon, by Claude Monet, depicts a charming family scene but the work is from an era before he embraced the impressionist style that became his trademark.
Not part of the Winter Masterpieces calendar, yet still a coup for the southern capital, is Titanic: the Artefact Exhibition, at the Melbourne Museum. Almost 100 years after it struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic, the supposedly unsinkable ship still holds great fascination. As the name suggests, this exhibition includes artefacts salvaged from the site of the wreckage, almost four kilometres below the ocean's surface. Some are extraordinary, such as a door through which first-class passengers would have boarded, or a twisted section of the ship's hull. Two booklets found among a young man's personal effects are also on display - a century-old Randwick race-day program and the rule book for NSW tram drivers. The items were conserved when the leather container holding the booklets collapsed and sealed them from seawater.
The exhibition is truly immersive, with visitors given a passenger boarding pass and encouraged to walk through accurate reconstructions of parts of the ship, including the grand staircase, where fans of the James Cameron film can imagine themselves as Leonardo DiCaprio or Kate Winslet.
The artefacts can inspire awe but a real sense of the tragedy comes with the words of those who were there.
The testimony of survivors is displayed in print and in reconstructions. They provide an insight into the disaster's scale and the grief of those whose loved ones weren't among the third of passengers who survived.
At exhibition's end, you discover the fate of the person whose boarding pass you hold. I was relieved to learn my passenger survived.
The writer was a guest of Tourism Victoria and the Sofitel, Melbourne.
Trip notes
Getting there
Virgin Blue flies daily from Sydney to Melbourne, priced from $80 one way. 13 67 89, virginblue.com.au.
Staying there
One night in a superior room at the Sofitel Melbourne is priced from about $350. The hotel's cultural getaway package, from $359 a night, also includes valet parking and two tickets to your choice of the European Masters: Stadel Museum or Tim Burton: the Exhibition. (03) 9653 0000, sofitelmelbourne.com.au.
See + do
Tim Burton: the Exhibition is at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, daily until October 10, 10am-6pm, Thursdays until 10pm, $19/$14/$10. (03) 8663 2200, acmi.net.au.
European Masters: Stadel Museum, 19th-20th Century is at the National Gallery of Victoria, St Kilda Road, daily until October 10, 10am-5pm, Wednesdays until 9pm, $23/$18/$11. (03) 8662 1555, ngv.vic.gov.au.
Titanic: the Artefact Exhibition, is at the Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton, until October 17, 10am-5pm, $24/$18/$16. Bookings recommended as Titanic is a timed-ticket exhibition, in which tickets have a specific "boarding time" at 15-minute intervals. Ticket includes general entry to Melbourne Museum. 13 11 02, museumvictoria.com.au/titanic.
More information
Four (other) things to do
1. One of the new stars of Melbourne's cafe scene is Captains of Industry. Part cafe and part gentleman's outfitter, the young men serving your coffee or lunch also craft bespoke suits and handmade shoes. Tailor Thom Grogan and shoemaker James Roberts established this gem. Even their jams and coffee are made especially for the cafe. Level 1, 2 Somerset Place, (03) 9642 5013, captainsofindustry.com.au.
2. Cibi in Collingwood is a combination of cafe, exhibition space and design shop. Zenta Tanaka stocks beautiful Japanese ceramics — and the coffee is stunning. The green-tea muffins, often available on weekends, are a highlight. 45 Keele Street, Collingwood, (03) 9077 3941, cibi.com.au.
3. For the craft-minded, Thread Den in Fitzroy will delight. Downstairs there are clothes made by young Australian designers; upstairs they offer sewing classes to encourage newcomers to clothesmaking. They even have the occasional men's class so blokes can hone their skills. 422 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, (03) 9486 9821, threadden.com.au.
4. Utopian Slumps is a small gallery in Guildford Lane. Under the curatorial eye of Melissa Loughnan, the non-profit gallery provides a showcase for a stable of artists, as well as hosting special project exhibitions. 33 Guildford Lane, (03) 9077 9918, utopianslumps.com.
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