Soapbubble Variant c.1956 Mixed Media. From the Bridgeman Education Site.Untitled c. 1960 Joseph Cornell. Collage on Masonite Board. From the Bridgeman Education site.
Although for some people the image of a naked woman lying on the grass would catch their attention, for me it's the image of Caerphilly Castle in the background! I'd know that castle anywhere, it's just down the road from me and I've stood underneath that precariously balanced section of wall - a Welsh Leaning Tower of Pizza. Not only is it surreal that a naked woman is outside having a picnic, but to me it's also surreal that an American artist would use an image of a building from Wales.
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collectionsonline/cornjose/
This link is to the papers written and compiled by Joseph Cornell throughout his entire career and it's really interesting. There's twenty five pages of stamps that he collected, as many of his Shadow Boxes included stamps in them. They must have had an important relevance for him. The website says there's twenty five linear feet of papers that the artist collected, either as business correspondence or artistic references. There's also 66 linear feet of artifacts that were directly related to the shadow boxes and collages that he created. Incredible. You could spend hours just on this one site alone, sifting through the reams of information.
This link is to the papers written and compiled by Joseph Cornell throughout his entire career and it's really interesting. There's twenty five pages of stamps that he collected, as many of his Shadow Boxes included stamps in them. They must have had an important relevance for him. The website says there's twenty five linear feet of papers that the artist collected, either as business correspondence or artistic references. There's also 66 linear feet of artifacts that were directly related to the shadow boxes and collages that he created. Incredible. You could spend hours just on this one site alone, sifting through the reams of information.
He was obviously a man with a finely tuned visual sense, with nature and humans seeming to occupy the majority of his symbology. The image above for Saopbubble Variant refers to the interest he held in celestial affairs. One of the stamps used in the top left hand section, of the little girl, has also been used in another of his shadow boxes, Untitled 1950, which I saw in The Art Book by Phaiden, which just shows how much relevance he attaches to all these different images, and how deeply they've entered his visual language.
This link has a huge list of photos to look at. http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cornell/
Fascinating resources--thanks for sharing the links!
ReplyDeleteIt was your website that introduced me to Cornell's work, way back when I did the Jackdaw painting! I looked for the link on your site recently, when I was doing the Collage project, but it had gone, so searching the web brought up these sites. The one with documents and letters by him looks really interesting. His boxes are like little worlds, I'd love to see one in the flesh.
ReplyDeleteHow nice to know that about Cornell. Maybe I should reconsider and put more of the collage history stuff back on my site! Thanks for letting me know. They are so fascinating, his constructions.
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