Joseph Cornell – The Pioneer of Box Assemblages

Biography.

Joseph Cornell was born at Nyack, New York, on the 24th day of December 1903. With no formal training in artistry, Cornell was a famous artist & sculptor. He broke new grounds in the art of sculpturing by presenting his skills through assemblages, mostly boxed with a glass in the front side for view. Though he was motivated towards the 20th century movement of Surrealism, his way of expressing the fantasies of Surrealism however was again very different as he blended Surrealism with Constructivism.

Reclusive by nature, Joseph Cornell could never strike a romantic relationship with any woman. Owing to the solitary disposition of his, Cornell spent most of his life in New York. Living mostly in penury, he kept switching from door to door selling, textile designing, plant nursery, magazine cover & layout designing, for his earnings. Joseph assumed first large sum by selling his artworks in 1948, post his first solo show. Disabled by Cerebral Palsy, Joseph passed away on December 29, 1972, in New York City.

Boxed assemblages – The identifying art form of Joseph Cornell. Joseph pioneered the artistic method of expressing his observations of his surroundings and his inspirations through “Boxed Assemblages” and flat collages. This art form is as artistically expressive as is a painter’s painting. The assemblages of Joseph Cornell were the picturesque arrangements of daily waste and discarded materials, just like some brilliant poems having common words, arranged so, that they form a beautiful poetic composition.

American Transcendentalists, Hollywood stars, the French Art Symbolists, the 19th century ballet dancers, and birds, potentially influenced the artworks of Cornell.

Some of the famous assemblages of Joseph Cornell.

o Tilly Losch (1935)
o Soap Bubble Set (1936)
o Defense d’Afficher Object (1939)
o The Hotel Eden (1945)
o A Swan Lake for Tamara Toumanova (1946)
o Pink Palace(1946-48)
o Paul and Virginia(1946-48)
o Medici Prince(1952)
o Solar Set(1958)
o Cassiopeia 1 (1960)

Joseph Cornell’s experimental films. Along with his unique boxed assemblages, he depicted the fantasies of Surrealism in his short experimental films too. Just like his artworks, Cornell’s films too became very popular. These films added new dimensions to artistic expressions in movie making. Some of his famous works include:

o Rose Hobart (1936)
o Children’s Party(1940)
o Cotillion(1940)
o The Midnight Party(1940)
o Centuries of June(1955)
o Mulberry Street (1957)
o Boy’s Games (1957)
o Nymph light (1957)
o Flushing Meadows (1965)
o By Night with Torch & Spear (1979)

Social impact of Joseph Cornell’s work. Due to his exceptional and revolutionary Surrealistic work, he was considered one of the most influential American artists. He was claimed to be the trumpeter of pop & installation arts by many. The influence of his work was so strong that he became the inspiration for many other artists from various different fields. For instance, the famous Dutch band “The Nits” dedicated the song “Soap Bubble Box” to one of the Cornell’s famous assemblages, the “Soap Bubble Set, which graces the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The famous American-Canadian writer William Gibson cited Cornell’s ‘boxes’ as a major element in his famous novel, “Count Zero” published in 1986.

Famous American singer and songwriter, Mary Chapin Carpenter, devoted a song to the life of Cornell. Many other writers such as Audrey Niffenegger & James Chapman expressed the influence of the artworks of Joseph in their literary writings.