A photograph of Joseph Cornell

Joseph Cornell Untitled (Dieppe) c. 1958, Museum of Modern Art, (New York City).

Joseph Cornell Cassiopeia 1, assemblage

'Dürer Self-Portrait', undated mixed-media collage by Joseph Cornell, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu

Joseph Cornell, (December 24, 1903 – December 29, 1972), was an American artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant garde experimental filmmaker. He lived in New York City for most of his life, in a wooden frame house on Utopia Parkway in a working-class area of Queens. He lived there with his mother and his brother, Robert, who was disabled by cerebral palsy. Cornell attended Phillips Academy, Andover, in the Class of 1921. Image File history File links Joseph_Cornell. ... Image File history File links Joseph_Cornell. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 523 pixelsFull resolution (1832 × 1198 pixel, file size: 346 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Untitled (Dieppe) by Joseph Cornell, c. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 523 pixelsFull resolution (1832 × 1198 pixel, file size: 346 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Untitled (Dieppe) by Joseph Cornell, c. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the museum in New York City. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Cornell_Cassiopeia_1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Cornell_Cassiopeia_1. ... An assemblage is an archaeological term meaning a group of different artefacts found in association with one another, that is, in the same context. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For other uses, see Collage (disambiguation). ... The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu is the only museum in the state of Hawaii devoted exclusively to contemporary art. ... is the 358th day of the year (359th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1900 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Friday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Assemblage is an art term used to describe many different art forms, and movements. ... Surrealism is an artistic movement and an aesthetic philosophy that aims for the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the critical and imaginative powers of the subconscious. ... The Love of Zero 35 mm film by Robert Florey 1927 Avant-garde (pronounced ) in French means front guard, advance guard, or vanguard. ... Experimental filmmakers are individual artists who use or used film as a visual art form rather than a storytelling or as a form of commercial media. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Queens is geographically the largest of the five boroughs of New York City in the United States, and the most ethnically diverse county in the U.S. It is coterminous with Queens County in the State of New York and is located on western Long Island. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Sculpture and collage

Cornell's most characteristic art works were boxed assemblages created from found objects. These are simple boxes, usually glass-fronted, in which he arranged surprising collections of photographs or Victorian bric-à-brac, in a way that combines the formal austerity of Constructivism with the lively fantasy of Surrealism. Many of his boxes, such as the famous Medici Slot Machine boxes, are interactive and are meant to be handled. Many were created as presents for little girls or for the young actresses and ballerinas whom Cornell adored from a distance. Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... Tatlin Tower. ... Max Ernst. ... Maya Plisetskaya, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet from 1943 to 1960 and prima ballerina assoluta from 1960 to 1990. ...

Like Kurt Schwitters Cornell could create poetry from the commonplace. Unlike Schwitters, however, he was fascinated not by refuse, garbage, and the discarded, but by fragments of once beautiful and precious objects he found on his frequent trips to the bookshops and thrift stores of New York.^[1] His boxes relied on the Surrealist technique of irrational juxtaposition, and on the evocation of nostalgia, for their appeal. Cornell never regarded himself as a Surrealist; although he admired the work and technique of Surrealists like Max Ernst and René Magritte, he disavowed the Surrealists' "black magic," claiming that he only wished to make white magic with his art. Cornell's fame as the leading American "Surrealist" allowed him to befriend several members of the Surrealist movement when they settled in the USA during the Second World War. Later he was claimed as a herald of pop art and installation art. Kurt Schwitters (June 20, 1887 - January 8, 1948) was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. ... A charity shop (UK), thrift store (US) or op shop (Australia/NZ, from opportunity shop) is a retail establishment operated by a charitable organization for the purpose of fundraising. ... One may feel nostalgic for the familiar routine of school, conveniently forgetting the painful experiences such as bullying. ... Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning in 1948. ... This is not a pipe. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? (1956) is one of the earliest works to be considered pop art. ... Installation art uses sculptural materials and other media to modify the way we experience a particular space. ...

In addition to creating boxes and flat collages and making short art films, Cornell also kept a filing system of over 160 visual-documentary "dossiers" on themes that interested him; the dossiers served as repositories from which Cornell drew material and inspiration for boxes like his "penny arcade" portrait of Lauren Bacall. He had no formal training in art, although he was extremely widely read and was conversant with the New York art scene from the 1940s through to the 1960s. Betty Joan Perske (born on September 16, 1924), better known as Lauren Bacall, is a Golden Globe– and Tony Award–winning, as well as Academy Award–nominated, American film and stage actress. ...

Cornell was heavily influenced by American Transcendentalists such as Emily Dickinson, Hollywood starlets (to whom he sent boxes he had dedicated to them), the French Symbolists such as Stéphane Mallarmé and Gerard de Nerval, and great dancers of the 19th century ballet such as Marie Taglioni and Fanny Cerrito. (Cornell's Christian Science belief that death, matter, time, and mortal mind are illusions allowed him to maintain friendships with these dancers, and others, regarded by the rest of society as long-dead.) Christian Science belief and practice informed Cornell's art deeply, as art historian Sandra Leonard Starr has shown. Transcendentalism was the name of a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture and philosophy which emerged in New England in the early- to mid-nineteenth century. ... Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. ... ... La mort du fossoyeur by Carlos Schwabe is a visual compendium of Symbolist motifs. ... Portrait of Stéphane Mallarmé by Édouard Manet. ... Gérard de Nerval (May 22, 1808 - January 26, 1855) was the nom-de-plume of the French poet, essayist and translator Gérard Labrunie, the most essentially Romantic among French poets. ... For other uses, see Ballet (disambiguation). ... Marie Taglioni, in a colored lithograph, circa 1831 (Victoria & Albert Museum). ... Christian Science is a religious teaching regarding the efficacy of spiritual healing according to the interpretation of the Bible by Mary Baker Eddy, in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (first published in 1875). ...

Experimental film

Joseph Cornell's 1936 found film montage, Rose Hobart, was made entirely from splicing together existing film stock that Cornell had found in New Jersey warehouses, mostly derived from a 1931 'B' film entitled East of Borneo. Cornell would play Nestor Amaral's record, 'Holiday in Brazil' during its rare screenings, as well as projecting the film through a deep blue glass or filter, giving the film a dreamlike effect. Focusing mainly on the gestures and expressions made by Rose Hobart (the original film's starlet), this dreamscape of Cornell's seems to exist in a kind of suspension until the film's most arresting sequence toward the end, when footage of a solar eclipse is juxtaposed with a white ball falling into a pool of water in slow motion. Rose Hobart (1936) is a short, 19 minute experimental film created by the artist Joseph Cornell, who cut and re-edited the Hollywood film East of Borneo into one of Americans most famous surrealist short films. ... Rose Hobart (May 1, 1906 - August 29, 2000) was an American film actress. ...

Cornell premiered the film at the Julien Levy Gallery in December of 1931 during the first Surrealist exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Salvador Dalí, who was in New York to attend the MoMA opening, was present at its first screening. During the screening, Dali became outraged at Cornell's movie, claiming he had just had the same idea of applying collage techniques to film. After the screening, Dali remarked to Cornell that he should stick to making boxes and to stop making films. Traumatized by this event, the shy, retiring Cornell never showed his films publicly again. Surrealism is an artistic movement and an aesthetic philosophy that aims for the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the critical and imaginative powers of the subconscious. ... This article is about the museum in New York City. ... Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí y Domènech, Marquis of Pubol (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989), was a Spanish (Catalan) surrealist painter. ...

Filmography

• Rose Hobart (1936)
• Children's Party (c. 1940)
• Cotillion (c. 1940)
• The Midnight Party (c. 1940)
• The Aviary (1955 film) (1955)
• Gnir Rednow (1956) (made with Stan Brakhage)
• Mulberry Street (1957)
• Boys' Games (1957)
• Centuries of June (1955) (made with Stan Brakhage)
• Nymphlight (1957)
• Flushing Meadows (c. 1965)
• A Legend for Fountains (1970)
• Bookstalls (???)
• By Night with Torch and Spear (???).

Rose Hobart (1936) is a short, 19 minute experimental film created by the artist Joseph Cornell, who cut and re-edited the Hollywood film East of Borneo into one of Americans most famous surrealist short films. ... For other uses, see Cotillion (disambiguation). ... Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) Stan Brakhage (January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American non-narrative filmmaker. ... In Manhattan, Mulberry Street is the street along which New Yorks shrinking Little Italy is centered. ... Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) Stan Brakhage (January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American non-narrative filmmaker. ... Flushing Meadows is an 8 minute long short movie, filmed in 1965 by Lawrence Jordan, with director Joseph Cornell. ...

Personal information

Joseph Cornell, as noted, was wary of strangers. Although he expressed attraction to unattainable women, like Lauren Bacall, his shyness made romantic relationships almost impossible. In later life his bashfulness verged on the point of being considered reclusiveness, and he rarely left the state of New York. Betty Joan Perske (born on September 16, 1924), better known as Lauren Bacall, is a Golden Globe– and Tony Award–winning, as well as Academy Award–nominated, American film and stage actress. ... This article is about the state. ...

His last major exhibition was a show he arranged especially for children, with the boxes displayed at child height and with the opening party serving soft drinks and cake.

He devoted his life to caring for his brother who died in 1965. This was another factor in his lack of relationships. At some point in the 1920s, or possibly earlier, he read the works of Mary Baker Eddy. He would consider her work to be the most important book to him outside the Bible and became a lifelong Christian Science adherent.[1] He was also rather poor for most of his life, working during the 1920's as a wholesale fabric salesman to support his family. As a result of the American Great Depression, Cornell lost his textile industry job in 1931, and worked for a short time thereafter as a door-to-door appliance salesman. During this time, through her friendship with Ethel Traphagen, Cornell's mother secured him a part-time position designing textiles. In the 1940's, Cornell also worked in a plant nursery (which would figure in his famous dossier "GC44") and briefly in a defense plant, and designed covers and feature layouts for Harper's Bazaar, View, Dance Index, and other magazines. He only really began to sell his boxes for significant sums after his 1948 solo show. Mary Baker Eddy (born Mary Morse Baker July 16, 1821 – December 3, 1910) founded the Church of Christ, Scientist in 1879 and was the author of its fundamental doctrinal textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. ... Christian Science is a religious teaching regarding the efficacy of spiritual healing according to the interpretation of the Bible by Mary Baker Eddy, in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (first published in 1875). ... For other uses, see The Great Depression (disambiguation). ...

References

1. ^ "Joseph Cornell" at Web Museum, Paris.

Biography

• Mary Ann Caws, Joseph Cornell's Theater of the Mind: Selected Diaries, Letters, and Files (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000) ISBN 0-500-28243-9
• Catherine Corman, Joseph Cornell's Dreams (Cambridge: Exact Change, 2007) ISBN1-878-97241-3
• Deborah Solomon, Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997) ISBN 0-374-52571-4
• Sandra Leonard Starr, Joseph Cornell: Art and Metaphysics (New York: Castelli Corcoran Feigen, 1982) LC Catalogue Card Number 82-71787

Mary Ann Caws (born 1933) is an American author, art historian and literary critic. ... Deborah Solomon (born August 9, 1957) is a journalist and cultural critic with a weekly Q&A column in The New York Times Magazine. ...

See also

• Haptic Poetry

Haptic poetry, like visual poetry and sound poetry, is a liminal art form combining characteristics of typography and sculpture to create objects not only to be seen, but to be touched and manipulated. ...

External links

• "Elusive Order: a Joseph Cornell exhibition, reviewed" ArtsEditor.com article
• Joseph Cornell: Navigating The Imagination at The Peabody Essex Museum
• Joseph Cornell at WebMuseum
• Joseph Cornell at Artchive
• Joseph Cornell at Artcyclopedia
• Joseph Cornell's Dreams
• NPR article on him
• Salon article
• Joseph Cornell Biography and Images: Hollis Taggart Galleries
• Smithsonian Retrospective
• Joseph Cornell at IMDB
• Joseph Cornell papers online at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art