WANDERLUST - THE ARTWORK OF JOSEPH CORNELL

Joseph Cornell

December 23 1903 ~ December 29 1972

Joseph Cornell was born on Christmas Eve in 1903 – which makes him an Edwardian, even if his ‘assemblage’ shadow box designs were created long after that era in time; with work that was to herald the dawn of Minimalism, Pop, and installation art. 

Cornell was born in New York, and both his parents were descended from well-to-do Dutch families. His father was a designer and seller of textiles, raising Joseph and three siblings in a comfortable home until his death in 1917.

For the rest of his life, Cornell remained with his mother, helping to care for a brother who suffered from cerebral palsy. Eventually, they relocated to the area of Flushing, from where Cornell seldom travelled except to seek inspiration in the shops of Manhattan. He liked old books and antiques, and the less valuable ephemera and trinkets found in dime stores; all the things he took home to create his works of art, most of them arranged in boxes which were enclosed under glass. 

Even if he never spread his wings to travel very far, the art he created in the basement of the house reflected an obsession with the much wider world – with astronomy and literature, cinema, ballet, and even ornithology. 

Sometimes he used machinery to enable his art to be moved within the frames. Examples of this are his Medici Slot Machines.

Overall, his work reflected the Surrealist movement, but with the sense of nostalgia in familiar objects from a not so distant past. He would use old photographs, or Victorian bric a brac. His cut-out images of birds featured in Aviary boxes, echoing the real stuffed creatures that were once so popular as 'ornaments' in homes, or decorations for hats.

Considered an eccentric, Cornwell was bashful and reclusive. When it came to romance he was generally attracted to the unattainable – beautiful ballerinas, or the actress Lauren Baccall. 

His Penny Arcade Portrait of Lauren Baccall was inspired by the film To Have and Have Not in 1946. Whatever she thought of the artist's gift for her, in 2014 it sold at Christies auction house for $5.3 million.