Big Eyes
Big Eyes , written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski and directed by Tim Burton , tells the true story of Margaret Keane , the artist whose second husband, Walter Keane, took credit for her work, garnering worldwide success due to people's fascination with Margaret's "big eyes" paintings. It's a great film, complete with a noticeable Tim Burton aesthetic. (I was particularly taken with the fuzzy look of the film, and the way every background, especially the scenic ones, looked like paintings.) Big Eyes is interesting on many levels, one of which is seeing the birth of art as an industry. Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) was a pioneer in making art affordable. He printed posters and post cards, enabling people without hundreds of dollars to buy the canvas version to have their own version of "mantle art," as Rothko might call it. It's rather savvy and actually an important contribution to the art world. Making art more accessible, not...