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Artists in 60 Seconds: Joseph Cornell

American Sculptor

for About.com

©The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York; used with permission

Joseph Cornell (American, 1903-1972). Untitled (Cockatoo with Watch Faces), ca. 1949. Box construction with inoperable music box. 16 1/4 x 17 x 4 7/16 in. (41.3 x 43.2 x 11.3 cm). The Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection. Photo: Michael Tropea.

© The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation / Licensed by VAGA, New York

Movement, Style, School or Type of Art

Assemblage, influenced by the lighter side of Surrealism.

Date and Place of Birth

December 24, 1903, Nyack, New York

Life

Joseph Cornell was a rather solitary figure in both the Art World and the world-at-large. He lived his entire life in the same house in Queens, surviving his mother / housemate by mere months. Wonderfully untrained, his trinket-filled, nostalgic, whimsical boxes were a never-before-seen medium (which lacked the descriptive name "assemblages" until a MoMA show in 1961). Rightfully best known for his constructions, Cornell also wrote poetry and created quite a number of short, experimental films.

Important Works

  • Medici Slot Machine (part of the "Medici" series), 1942
  • Untitled (The Hotel Eden) (part of the "Hotel" series), 1945
  • Untitled (Penny Arcade Portrait of Lauren Bacall) (part of the "Penny Arcade" series), 1945-46
  • Untitled (Aviary with Parrot and Drawers) (part of the "Aviary" series), 1949

See pictures of Joseph Cornell's work in the Special Exhibition Gallery Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination.

Date and Place of Death

December 29, 1972, Flushing, New York

Sources and Further Reading

  • Baverstock, Alison. Secrets in a Box (Adventures in Art).
    New York : Prestel, 2003.

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  • Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe; Vine, Richard; Lehrman, Robert; Cornell, Joseph; Hopps, Walter.
    Joseph Cornell: Shadowplay ... Eterniday.
    New York : Thames and Hudson, 2003.

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  • Prestel Postcard Books. Joseph Cornell: Postcards.
    New York : Prestel, 2000.

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  • Schaffner, Ingrid. The Essential Joseph Cornell.
    New York : Harry N. Abrams, 2003.

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  • Waldman, Diane. Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams.
    New York : Harry N. Abrams, 2002.

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