The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will present Tim Burton, a major retrospective exploring the full range of Tim Burton's creative work, both as a director of live-action and animated films, and as an artist, illustrator, photographer, and writer. Showcased here are just a few of the "Batman Items" that will be present. We got an original Batman Cowl from a Batman Movie, plus some Costume Design Drawings of both the Penguin & Catwoman from "Batman Returns" and one of The Joker ( Jack Nicholson ) from 1989's BATMAN. Plus, you know there will be much much more! Wow! It looks like a great show!
It will be on view at LACMA from May 29th ( This Sunday! ) through October 31st, 2011, the exhibition brings together over 700 drawings, paintings, photographs, moving-image works, storyboards, puppets, concept artworks, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera, including art from a number of unrealized and little-known personal projects. Many of these objects come from the artist's own archive, as well as from studio archives and private collections of Burton's collaborators.
Also, IMPORTANT BOOK SIGNING NOTICE:
Tim Burton will be available at the LAC Museum on SATURDAY, May 28th to personally sign the exhibition catalog book. He'll be there for only 2 hours, between 12:00 & 2:00. For more information, click HERE!
There's a pretty cool art show event-thing going on at the BEAR & BIRD BOUTIQUE + GALLERY in Lauderhill, Florida that a lot of Bat-Blog readers might like to see. In fact, the show ends on July 31st so, you have until the end of this month to see it. It has a "Love of Vintage Toys" theme & a few pieces are even Batman-related. Basically, it's a group show with many artists contributing artwork & photography that is inspired by cherished toys from their childhood. They all pay homage to different action figure toy lines: You have Mego's Batman, Kenner's Star Wars, Mattel's He-Man Master of The Universe, Lego Characters, & much much more! A lot of the artwork is really amazing! Here in this post we feature the 2 Batman-inspired ones. The 1st one was done by the curator of the show & it's actually an original comic book ad for the Magnetic Batman figure by Mego, framed. She also displays the actual figure right above it...cool! The next one is an acrylic painting of a Batman String Puppet flopping around. It was masterfully done by Lora Zombie. There are too many artists & pieces of art to mention here but the flyer ( last photo ) shows all of their names. Plus, at the end of this post is a really really great video of the Art Gallery Installation & you can see all the artwork very well. For more information be sure to visit BEARANDBIRD.COM plus, if you would like to see all the art in sharp detail, be sure to visit their online Flickr gallery by clicking HERE!
WOW! The Bat-Blog is known for sharing a ton of news about Batman but this is actual BAT-HISTORY right here! The image you see up above is a photo of the original Batman Pop Art Oil Painting "done by" Bob Kane, the co-creator of Batman. The pics were sent in by a Bat-Blog Fan named Rick, who actually owns this amazing piece of art ( Be sure to click on it for a larger, sharper, image ). He explained how he got it in this email, he wrote:
In 1966, after the television show hit big, Bob Kane did a series of 12 large pop art oil paintings. This is one of them and, I think, the best of the bunch. I saw about 8 of them in the early 90's when Kane exhibited them at an art gallery in Beverly Hills. Mine was owned by Cary Grant for 20 years and hung in his guest bathroom. I've owned it since 1987.
Oh man! I've known about these paintings for years & it's so cool to actually meet someone who owns one. I've never seen one in real life, only publicity photos. To publish an actual photo of this on my blog is a total honor, no kidding, it's great! Thank you Rick for sharing your story.
Right now there's an Art Show titled "New Idols" at the Don Gallery in Milano, Italy. The show features 1980's Pop Icon Sculptures by Francesco De Molfetta. He's done a few that are a parody of E.T., Transformers, Barbie Doll, Superman, etc... Most of them are sort of political & all of them have a lot of humor. This is the one he did of Batman, or I should say, "Fatman", ha! For more info on the event, click HERE!
The CARTOON ART MUSEUM in San Francisco, CA is planning an exhibit that is a celebration of Batman's 70 year history! The exhibition starts at the end of this month ( January 30th ) & runs till June 6th, 2010. The title of the show will be BATMAN: YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW. Featured artists include Bob Kane andBill Finger, who created Batman in 1939; Neal Adams, whose detailed artistry redefined comics in the 1970s; Frank Miller, whose graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns pioneered the modern, mature concept of Batman; Pepe Moreno, whose Batman: Digital Justice was the first graphic novel with entirely computer-generated art; Jiro Kuwata, who was the Japanese artist for the 1960's Bat-Manga that appeared in Shonen King magazines in Japan; and acclaimed artist Paul Pope, whose Batman: Year 100 pays homage to the original Batman comics and looks ahead to Gotham City of the year 2039. For more information about the event be sure to visit their website by clicking HERE!
I just discovered a Pop Artist in Australia who, right now, is totally inspired by Batman & other comic book imagery. His name is Johnny Romeo. He's mainly a painter but also makes prints & books. Judging his artwork you can easily see that he is inspired by both Jean Michel Basquiat & Andy Warhol. But I do have to admit that he's a great colorist. Plus these paintings do look pretty cool! If you're interested in seeing more of his artwork you can do so by clicking HERE! There you will find information to his current art openings in & around Australia. Also, down below is the promo video for his current United Galleries Art Show with the "BATMAN LANE SERIES" Paintings.
Holy Purr-fection, Batman! Catwoman herself, Hollywood icon, actress, and author Julie Newmar, will join us in person as the Paley Center presents this exclusive preview of Julie Newmar: A Life in Motion, a world premiere photographic exhibition at the David W. Streets Fine Art and Photography Gallery in Beverly Hills, featuring the performer as captured by Bert Stern, John Engstead, and Bernard of Hollywood, among others.At the Paley Center event, Ms. Newmar will introduce a special screening of the Biography special, Julie Newmar: The Cat's Meow, and be on hand for a sneak preview of select imagery from the exhibit in the Paley Center's Bell Family Gallery. Julie Newmar: A Life in Motion, will remain on view at the Paley Center until December 6, while the main exhibit is running concurrently at the David W. Streets Gallery.Admission to the exclusive screening and gallery exhibit preview is free, but reservations are recommended. Saturday, November 7, 2009,1:00 pm PT,Los Angeles, CA. For more information be sure to visit the Paley Center website by clicking HERE!
Everybody who knows me personally knows that I am a total Andy Warhol Fan. So when my friend Jeffery sent me this pic of a cool poster with "Warhol AND Batman" I was pretty happy, ha ha. This is an extremely RARE Art Gallery Poster for an exhibit of Warhol's artwork in Torino, Italy. The event happened in 1989 & the actual graphic is a large painting that the Artist did in the 1960's. I love that they chose his "Batman Logo" painting for this. It was an early piece where he was still trying to be a little bit like an Abstract Expressionist. It's a famous piece of art that you really don't get to see very often. Awesome! Thanks Jeffery!
I just recently joined a Message Board called the "Drawing Board". It's for artists & illustrators to share tips or information. Plus, it's just a great place to see a lot of neat Comic Book Style Artwork, Pin-Up Girlie Art, Portraits, Cartoon Graphics, Animation Videos, & Graphic Styles of all kind. Now, speaking of graphic style, here's an example. They had a thread where people were invited to post their personal artwork of The Joker. They call it an "ART JAM". Well, this thing must have been pretty popular because a TON of awesome artwork got posted. Because of space limitations I can only show a few as an example but, really, at the website there are many many more! So if you look at these you can see what I am talking about. I sort of picked some out at random. They all have their own unique style but also very different from each other. Some artists draw things very realistic, like replicating a photograph, while others have a "Cartoon Style". I know a lot of readers of the Bat-Blog are extremely creative people who work as artists so this post works on another level & that is, you should join the "Drawing Board" to help you become a better artist. If not in your craft, then maybe just to network with other professionals. You can visit their website by clicking HERE!
Alright! I'm really proud to be showing off this amazing artwork done by a Bat-Blog Friend named BROHAWK. His real name is David Williams, but he's a black guy with a huge Mohawk hairstyle, so everybody calls him "Brohawk"! I love that nickname, pretty funny! But all kidding aside, he's a GREAT comic book artist! Check this out - Here's an amazing piece of art he done at a comic book convention back in 2008 ( Be sure to click on it for a larger, more detailed, version ). It's The Joker's favorite girlfriend, HARLEY QUINN! She's holding a fuse-lit bomb that I bet is intended for Batman, ha ha! The details to this thing are totally beautiful. I really like the coloring too, especially the eyes. I wanna thank David for sending this to me & I also wanna invite you guys to check out his website gallery for more nice art. You can do so by clicking HERE!
This post is just a friendly reminder of a Batman-related event that happens tomorrow. So, don't forget! On Saturday, August 8th, 2009 ( 5:00pm - 11:00pm ) in Albuquerque, New Mexico the TRILLION ART SPACE ( 2nd & Marquette ) will have an art show titled, "WHY SO SERIOUS?". The show will feature art work in many shapes, forms, & sizes but all of it will have a special focus on Batman and/or The Joker. There will be paintings, photos, colleges, etc...To celebrate the event I made these 2 WALLPAPER BACKGROUNDS you can use on your desktop as a reminder. Also, if anybody goes to this thing then please let us know how it went & send us some photos if ya can, thanks!
Starting August 1st, 2009, the TOONSEUM at The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh will have a special art show titled TOM RICHMOND:The MAD ART OF CARICATURE. Basically, since 2000, Tom has been one of the main artists for Mad magazine. This show will feature tons of his original artwork & the reason I'm posting it here is because there will be some Batman drawings shown too. Plus, I'm a huge fan of comic art & it's my blog, ha ha! But seriously, if you live in the area ( Pennsylvania ) then you should check it out because I bet it's gonna be a real treat to see. The show runs until October 4th. For more information, please be sure to visit their website by clicking HERE!
