Joseph Cornell

Post-War and Contemporary Artist

1903-1972

• Cornell used boxes as a means of personal expression. A creative but reclusive genius, Joseph Cornell was famous for his compartmentalized box creations. Cornell's boxes displayed assemblages of tiny bits and fragments of his life's experiences to kindle a much broader emotional insight.

Image of the renowned American artist Joseph Cornell

{Is the use of black and white more powerful than color to show emphasis?}

• Romantic Museum, Joseph Cornell. Cigar box covered in cloth 1865-1875.

• There are a number of reasons an artist may want to make an assemblage. For traditional artists like Cornell, adding a found object is an effective way to add texture and depth to a collage, or to add a funky 3-D appeal. Another reason two-dimensional artists may want to create an assemblage is because it is a non-threatening way to explore making sculpture.

• {Do you think unity is easier demonstrated from inside the box?}

Roses des Vents, 1942, Cornell

Robyn Gordon-Regaining Sense of Peace

Think of areas to design as particular spaces or sections at a time to develop.

{How can color be used as an expression of balance?}

Mondrian boxes

Cornell’s boxes gave us “clues” to his favorite pastime through the use of image proportion. • {Why do you

think Cornell used three flower vases in a row? Can you name the principle of design the vases demonstrate?}

M’lle Faretti, Joseph Cornell, 1933

• Today we used Joseph Cornell’s art to recognize the aesthetics of boxes that makes a statement or ‘speaks’ to us by affecting our senses in some way. 

• Sometimes there are prompts like printed material (a particular letter symbol), bits of old advertisements (magazine cut-outs), or a nostalgia object (3-D), so that an art piece defines a personal statement. Aesthetics communicates differently in some way to each of us as we view these boxes. 

• It is in our nature to try to make sense of the nonsensical sometimes – even though we have to accept that life is sometimes like art (and like Cornell’s boxes) – just the principle of the thing!

• Apt.3, Altered art box

Aldwyth, Ackland Museum, cigar box Student art box from Rowe Junior

. High School in Athens, PA.

Can you find balance, proportion, rhythm, emphasis, and unity in these art boxes?

Joseph Cornell