I had the opportunity to catch the new Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) the filmmaker’s first museum retrospective. The exhibit includes Guillermo del Toro‘s personal collection of paintings, drawings, maquettes, artifacts, and concept film art as well as extensive elements from the filmmakers career beginning with Cronos (1993) and continuing through The Devil’s Backbone (2001), Hellboy (2004), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Pacific Rim (2013), and Crimson Peak (2015), among many other film, television, and book projects. The exhibit is a fascinating insight into del Toro’s creative process by bringing together elements from his films, objects from his vast personal collections, drawings from his notebooks, and a diverse range of media—including sculpture, paintings, prints, photography, costumes, ancient artifacts, books, maquettes, and film—totals approximately 500 objects and reflects the broad scope of del Toro’s inspirations.
“To find beauty in the profane. To elevate the banal. To be moved by genre. These things are vital for my storytelling,” Guillermo del Toro
The exhibit displays del Toro’s notebooks, collections, and film art into the exhibit and organizing it into eight thematic sections: Childhood and Innocence; Victoriana; Magic, Alchemy, and the Occult; Movies, Comics, Pop Culture; Frankenstein and Horror; Freaks and Monsters; and Death and the Afterlife.
Concept Art for Pan’s Labyrinth
Childhood and Innocence
explores the central role children play in many of del Toro’s films
Victoriana, references the Romantic, Victorian, and Edwardian ages,
as well as latter-day interpretations of the Victorian era
Magic, Alchemy, and the Occult – cites the influence of H.P. Lovecraft, the idiosyncratic American writer whose work is considered foundational for the genres of horror and science fiction. Lovecraft’s vivid evocations of madness, transformation, and monstrosity continue to be a major source of inspiration; for the last decade, del Toro has been attempting to adapt Lovecraft’s novella At the Mountains of Madness (1936) for the screen.
Concept art for Walt Disney’s Fantasia, c. 1940
Movies, Comics, Pop Culture delves into del Toro’s obsession with cinema, from B movies and horror films to directors Alfred Hitchcock and Luis Buñuel
Bride of FrankensteinFrankenstein and Horror reveals del Toro’s lifelong love affair with
the tale of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster
If you’re in the Los Angeles area make a point to see the exhibit, which runs through November 27th, you won’t be disappointed.
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