Cornell


MEMORY BOXES  (Joseph Cornell)
Joseph Cornell (1903-75) is a pioneer American artist whose creations have attracted intellectual as well as artistic interest.  His work was in the new art of sculpture called the assemblage, the art of joining unlikely objects or images together in a single context.  Cornell’s boxes have been described as “star maps of a private universe” and include, among many themes, references to French symbolist poetry, American movies, dime-store merchandise, Renaissance art, and astronomical mapping.  Cornell was given a retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1975?.  The intersection of literature, internationalism, memory, popular culture, high art, and science, reflects the First Year Program’s theme, In a world of contradictions, how then shall we live?

1. Joseph Cornell, Untitled [Soap Bubble Set], 193 6
Construction 15 3/4 x 14 1/4 x 5 7/16, Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum

2. Joseph Cornell, Soap Bubble Set, 1948
Construction 9 x 13 x 3 3/4, Collection Mr. & Mrs. E. A. Bergman, Chicago

3. Joseph Cornell, Observatory, 1950
Construction 17 1/2 x 12 x 4, Collection Mr. & Mrs. E. A. Bergman, Chicago

4. Joseph Cornell, Space Object Box, 1959
Construction 9 x 15 x 4, Los Angeles, Ferus Gallery

5. Joseph Cornell, Dream World, 1957
Construction, Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art

5a. Joseph Cornell, Hotel du Nord, 1953,
Construction, New York, Whitney Museum of Art

5b. Joseph Cornell, Hotel Bon Port, 1954

6. Joseph Cornell, Habitat Group for a Shooting Gallery, 1943
Construction 15 x 9 x 4, Los Angeles, Ferus Gallery

7. Jospeh Cornell, Untitled [Hotel Beau-Sejour], 1954
Construction 17 3/4 x 12 1/4 x 4 1/2, New York, Museum of Modern Art

8.  Joseph Cornell, Isabelle: Dien Bien Phu 1954
Construction 18 x 12 x 6, Private Collection, New York
On back, a German Map of Asia and East Indian Ocean collaged with a portion of a
newspaper article: A hard core band of 2,000 Foreign Legionnaires chose to go/ down
fighting for the glory of /France in a suicidal attack on Communist captors of Dien Bien
Phu./ The French high command at Hanoi said the Legionnaires / under the command of
Col.  Andre Lalande at outpost Isabelle/ preferred to fight to the end than to surrender./
A communist Radio Beijing broadcast heard in Tokyo said/ the Communist Indochinese
conquerors of Dien Bien Phu had /"annihilated" the Legionnaires hours after the main
fortress had fallen.

9. Joseph Cornell, Grand Duchess Anne, 1957
Construction, Collection Mr. & Mrs. E.A. Bergman, Chicago

10.  Joseph Cornell, Medici Slot Machine, 1942
Construction 15 1/2 x 12 x 4 3/8, New York, The Reis Family Collection
Sources: Portrait of a Young Noble, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, a painting formerly
attributed to G. B. Moroni, but now assigned to Sofonisba Anguissola.  Maps showing the
remains of the ancient Roman imperial palace on the Palatine hill in Rome.

11. Joseph Cornell, Medici Boy 1942-52
Construction 13 15/16 x 11 3/16 x 3 7/8
Estate of Joseph Cornell
Sources: Pinturicchio, Portrait of a Boy, Baedeker maps of Venice

12.  Joseph Cornell, Medici Princess, c. 1948
Construction 17 5/8 x 11 1/8 x 4 3/4, Private Collection
Sources: Bronzino, Bia de Cosimo de Medici, Baedeker maps

13.  Joseph Cornell, Via Parmigianino (For Allegra) 1956,
Construction 12 3/8 x 8 3/8 x 3 3/8

14. Joseph Cornell, Untitled[Bell Jar] 1939
Construction, 9 1/4 x 8 1/4 Washington D.C., National Collection of Fine Arts

15. Joseph Cornell, A Dressing Room for Gille 1939
Construction 15 x 8 5/8 x 2 3/4, Private Collection

16. Joseph Cornell, Pantry Ballet 1942
Construction, Collection Feigen, New York

l 7. Joseph Cornell, Setting for a Fairy Tale, 1942
Construction, Collection Peggy Guggenheim, Venice

l 8. Joseph Cornell, Baby Marie, 1940s, New York, Museum of Modern Art

19. Joseph Cornell, Taglioni's Jewel Casket, 1940, New York, Museum of Modern Art

20. Joseph Cornell, Dovecote, 1950, Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art

21. Joseph Cornell, Untitled [Penny Arcade Portrait of Lauren Bacall], 194546
Construction 20 1/2 x 16 x 3 1/2, Collection Mr. & Mrs. E. A. Bergman, Chicago

22. Joseph Cornell, Toward the "Blue Peninsula ": For Emily Dickenson, 1953
Construction 14 1/2 x 10 51/4 x 5 1/2, New York, The Pace Gallery

23.  Joseph Cornell, Untitled (Vierge, vivace), 1970, after sonnet by Mallarme
Collage 14 x 12 1/16, Estate of Joseph Cornell

24. Joseph Cornell, Memorial Collage to Robert Cornell, the artist's invalid brother
Source: Magritte's Time Transixed
 



Memory Box