Joseph Cornell was born in 1903 in Nyack, New York. At the age of 14 his father died, and he moved, with his mother and three siblings, to the Queens section of New York City. Despite his relatively sheltered life, living as an adult with his mother and brother, his art was contemporary and sophisticated. His most famous and distinctive works were boxes he created out of wood, glass, and innumerable objects and photos he collected in New York City's antique and secondhand shops, which conveyed a poetic and magical aura. His first job at 18 was as a salesman in the textile industry. At this time, he also began to collect all sorts of natural objects, memorabilia and antique and contemporary images, and arranged these 'found' objects into collages and constructions. In 1931, he saw an exhibition of Surrealist art in a New York gallery, and later met Surrealist writers and artists at the Julien Levy Gallery, eventually showing his work in Surrealist exhibitions. Artistic influences included Dada artists Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters, and Surrealist Max Ernst; other influences were his interest in ballet, music and literature.
His small wooden boxes (from 10-12 inches to 20 or more inches in size), carefully filled with various objects, were usually covered with a pane of glass. Some of the elements were kinetic. These works of art are referred to as assemblages, mainly three-dimensional works of combined objects. The objects were chosen carefully, although many held no intrinsic value alone; only when combined did these objects reveal a deeper meaning. Birds were a common image, as were constellations and other heavenly bodies, either as two-dimensional images or merely evoked by a round sphere. Juxtapositions were always poetic, evoking associations often explored by Surrealists, of mystery, fantasy, the subconscious, dreams, etc., however his work differed from the Surrealists in that, while they were interested in unexpected or shocking juxtapositions, he was more interested in finding poetic connections of meaning between disparate objects. The miniature world in itself has a unique charm, and when these few objects are isolated in such a way, they force us to really look at them, perhaps for the first time, and to think about their possible meanings. The spareness of the compositions also contributes to the expressiveness, with their geometry, curves and two- and three-dimensional spaces.
Duchamp, the Dada artist, developed the idea of the 'readymade' as an art object, early in the 20th century. Basically as an intellectual questioning of what the nature of art truly is, as well as a Dada shock tactic, Duchamp placed a urinal in a New York exhibition in 1915 (an object is art if the artist says it is). From this point on, the 'found' object could also be art, alone or with other objects. Cornell had already been collecting bits and pieces and putting them together into collages when he met Duchamp in the early 1930's. His acquaintance with Duchamp and the Surrealists influenced his thinking and his work, as well as the box constructions of Kurt Schwitters, another Dada artist. Schwitters' abstract collages and constructions were composed of materials which had already been thrown away and 'useless,' however, rather than precious items chosen carefully for their meanings. Cornell had no formal art training, and didn't draw or paint or sculpt in the traditional sense, however in the true sense, he was the very definition of artistic and creative - that is, an artist is one who takes materials and/or elements, and combines them in inventive and/or expressive ways. What the materials/elements are is of lesser concern, as well as is the method used to combine them - the bottom line is how successful the final product is, as art.
Although he was associated with the Surrealists, as well as later movements (Abstract Expressionism and Pop art), he was perhaps an artist not part of a group, but an individual following his personal vision. He was especially interested in past times, such as the Victorian era, and his work may have evolved from the Victorian practice of preserving souvenirs and mementos in boxes, as well as Victorian parlor games. His range of subjects was vast - Hollywood stars, birds, astrology, ballet (a swan), opera, Medicis of the Renaissance, travel, artists (Juan Gris), poetry (Emily Dickinson), the cosmos. The materials he used were also wide-ranging: cut-outs from various publications, marbles, butterfly wings, scraps of wallpaper, souvenirs and memorabilia, sky charts, old advertisements, broken glassware, music boxes, feathers, metal springs, maps, seashells, mirrors, plastic ice cubes. He was also influenced by the philosophy of Christian Science, with its emphasis on harmony and the spirit.
These object show really intresting bottles filled with intresting things, not just pills. I liked looking at these objects because they show a way of displaying medication in a safe manner. These objects are unique and somthing really draws me to them.
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