Who knows what one object will tell another? — Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell (born Nyack, New York on 24 December 1903 – died Queens, New York on 29 December 1972) was an American sculptor, collagist, & film-maker, who is generally credited with being the first artist to elevate shadow-box assemblage to the status of high art, becoming one of its greatest practitioners. Cornell’s work also exerted a pervasive if subtle influence on the graphic and decorative arts that continues to this day.
Geography & Voyaging: Homage to Joseph Cornell (2010). Digital collage created & copyright © by Eric Edelman. All rights reserved.
Cornell did not study art-making formally, but in common with many boys raised in late Victorian times, he received elementary training in simple manual arts according to the Kindergarten principles of the German educator Friedrich Froebel (Cornell’s mother was trained as a kindergarten teacher). Cornell also learned to make simple toys and decorations from how-to manuals like The Boy’s Own Book, a 19th-century encyclopedia of pastimes, games, and crafts, which among other things taught how to make simple shadow boxes from scrap wood and plate glass.
After spending the 1920s working in New York City as a wool fabric salesman and educating himself at night, Cornell discovered the collages of Max Ernst and the other Surrealists, and began producing his own collages of 19th-century wood engravings. He credited the inspiration to create boxed constructions to a chance encounter one day with a shop window displaying a collection of navigational compasses:
“I thought, everything can be used in a lifetime, can’t it, and went on walking, …I’d scarcely gone two blocks when I came to another shop window full of boxes, all kinds. … Halfway home on the train that night, I thought of the compasses and boxes, and it occurred to me to put the two together.”
Perhaps it’s closer to the mark to say that Cornell’s happy discovery of the boxes and compasses rekindled his boyhood urge to tinker, and harnessed it to create his mature artwork. His subsequent relationships with the European Surrealist expatriates in New York not only inspired him but also gave him a context in which to exhibit his collages and assemblages.
For further information and links about Joseph Cornell, see the Wikipedia article on him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Cornell
(With the exception of quotations and links, all artwork, descriptions, & other text on this page were created & are copyright © by Eric Edelman. All rights reserved.)
http://jeffrobertspoetry.blogspot.com/2008/06/there-never-was-bird.html
Thanks for the link to your post showing the image: Construction, “Toward the Blue Peninsula (for Emily Dickinson)” by Joseph Cornell, 1952
People with such a creative mind are always interesting to me. My girlfriend is a bit like this. She sees simple objects everywhere that can be used either for practical or artistic reasons. I think this comes from being poor as a child and learning to make something from nothing.
Thanks for your comment. Seeing alternate uses for everyday objects and re-purposing them — making something from nothing — are not just characteristics of a childhood spent in poverty. Young children in general and artists have this kind of imagination as well, by instinct, practice, and training. Cornell is just one example; Picasso, Bracque, Duchamp, the Surrealists, Dadaists, and collage artists of all genres are others.
Eric, I really like your work. You can see a lot of influence from Cornell, especially in your collage pieces.
Have any of your pieces been displayed in Denver? I swear some of them look really familiar to me.
Thanks, Rick! I appreciate your comment. Cornell has been a big influence on me for many years, in both sculpture and collage.
I don’t think my pieces have been shown in Denver — not to my knowledge, at least. But if you do see some, please let me know where and when!
Hi Eric,
Here’s a link to a Cornell Fan site I started in March. Most things here are from my own collection, but a few are just items that we don’t normally run across. Cheers, Jeff
http://fansofjosephcornell.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the link, Jeff! It’s a great site, and a good resource for all of us Cornell fans. It’s especially nice to see some of the rarer exhibition catalogues and announcements brought to view.
Joseph Cornell’s bio reminds us that much of what a person does in his adulthood has its deep roots in his childhood. This certainly implies that a child must be given the chance to explore his interests when he is young, and that parents must provide every opportunity to enhance his experiences with these interests.
Absolutely. Joseph Cornell distilled his childhood experiences and his childlike point of view directly into the elixir of his art. (Cornell himself would probably cringe to hear me say that, but I believe it to be true.) In its relation to childhood, Cornell’s work is more akin to the novels of Marcel Proust, or the poetry of Rimbaud or the French Symbolists, than it is to the images of any other visual artist, save perhaps Bruno Shulz.
“I thought, everything can be used is a lifetime” This is very true, I’m a very big fan of Joseph Cornell! I study fashion and there are times when i’m also looking for some kind of inspiration on the surroundings, there’s always a point when I end up sticking little objects that I find along the way into tshirts or jeans. So yes, i do like this philosophy and i think everyone should keep it in mind!
It’s always wonderful when two Joseph Cornell fans meet…Thanks very much for your thoughtful comment, Antonia, and welcome to Art of RetroCollage!’m very glad you found out site.