Joseph Cornell

description

An American artist, designer and avant-garde filmmaker. Joseph Cornell worked primarily in installation and assembly techniques, using everyday things in unexpected combinations. He had no art education, worked as a seller of fabrics and showed his artistic talents only by the age of thirty, creating a new and interesting style in contemporary art, which had many followers.

The impact of Cornell’s works on the subconscious and mysteriousness makes him related to Surrealists and Dadaists. However, the self-taught artist never referred himself to any of the modernist or avant-garde movements. He led a very secluded life on the outskirts of the city with his sick brother and mother; rarely spoke in public, but maintained friendly relations with most modern American artists. Cornell was a deeply religious man and an ardent supporter of “Christian science”, which left a significant imprint on his entire work.

Joseph Cornell is best known for his original installations, where in a small often closed on all sides space everything acquires an entirely different meaning and causes a wide variety of associations. The artist’s most famous works are glass boxes in which he placed various objects: old photographs, newspaper scraps, and other small items. These “shadow boxes,” as the author himself called them, had a great influence on the development of installation, assemblage, and other types of contemporary art.

Key ideas:

– The artist’s works contain an appeal to the inner world of a person, the secrets of his soul, which are hidden in the depths of the psyche. The long-forgotten fears, dreams and fantasies are placed in limited spaces, similar to children’s boxes with “treasures”, filled with memories of a distant past.

– Each thing in the compositions of Cornell has a symbolic meaning. Household items freed from their intended purpose or newspaper illustrations taken out of context come into various extraordinary combinations and create a peculiar game of meanings and associations. At the same time, different viewers may understand the symbols of peculiar objects differently.

– The main elements of Cornell’s compositions are images of people and birds, glassware and maps. The artist often used the theme of travel in his works, although he almost never left his native city, New York. His “boxes” resemble souvenirs from various places on the world map as if the author himself had visited Paris, Egypt or Venice.

– Cornell carefully selected proper materials for installations. He often visited antique shops and shops with exotic goods in the hope of finding some interesting little thing. He sorted the found objects by subject and put them in separate boxes so that later he could use them in his works. A huge collection of various small objects, clippings from newspapers and magazines, restaurant menus, brochures, which were stored in the basement of the artist’s house on the outskirts of New York, gives an idea of the sources of his inspiration and the era in which Joseph Cornell lived and worked.

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1972

Joseph Cornell was the eldest of four children of a cloth merchant

Joseph Cornell was the eldest of four children of a cloth merchant. The weak and shy boy had a great affection for his younger brother Robert, who had cerebral palsy. Joseph’s father died when he was 13 years old and had to work to help his mother take care of the family. Cornell attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, but left it without completing the course.

Together with his family he moved to Utopia Parkway in Queens

Together with his family he moved to Utopia Parkway in Queens, where he lived until the end of his days. Although the young man did not attend specialized educational institutions, he studied by himself, visited museums and exhibitions of modern art, as well as ballet and theater performances. At one of these exhibitions, he was impressed by the collages of Max Ernst and began working in this technique, combining various objects found in original compositions.

The first solo exhibition

Took part in the Surréalisme collective exhibition in New York and designed the cover of the exhibition catalog. In the same year, the artist’s first solo exhibition was held at the Levy Gallery; it was called “Joseph Cornell’s Objects: Minutiae, Glass Bells, Coups d’Oeil, Jouet Surréalistes”. In addition to design creativity, he was engaged in cinema. The artist created a short avant-garde film based on materials from the Hollywood film “East of Borneo”.

«Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism»

Participated in the exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art “Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism”, where he presented one of his first shadow boxes called “Soap Bubble”. After that, Cornell regularly exhibited and sold his works, and gradually gained fame among the American public. In addition, the artist worked as a freelance designer for the magazines Vogue and House & Garden.

He became the organizer and participant of the contemporary art exhibition

Together with Marcel Duchamp, he became the organizer and participant of the contemporary art exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. By that time, Cornell’s works were popular, and he could devote his time exclusively to art. In the basement of his house, the artist organized a workshop and a large repository of various items, which he systematized by themes and used for his assemblies.

He completed the work “Book Object”

He completed the work “Book Object”, which is of great interest as one of the atypical radical works.

The Wonderful Ring

Together with Stan Breckidge, the leader of avant-garde American cinema, he created the experimental short film The Wonderful Ring. Cornell made films using his methods for creating collages.

Cornell became more famous

After participating in the collective exhibition “The Art of Assemblage” at the New York Museum of Modern Art, Cornell became more famous. His nostalgic works reminiscent of the “secrets of childhood” were exhibited in a separate room. The exposition featured works created in different years, mainly wooden boxes and caskets on various topics. The exhibition was popular among artists and had a significant influence on the development of contemporary American art.

The brother of the artist died

The brother of the artist, whom he took care of all his life, and their mother died. This sad event had influence on Cornell. He stopped creating original boxes and focused on collages.

Cornell's solo exhibition

Cornell’s solo exhibition at the Solomon Guggenheim Gallery aroused great enthusiasm among pop artists, in particular, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol.