Joseph Cornell was a precursor in the use of boxes in art.
Joseph Cornell was born on Christmas Eve 1903, and died on 29th December 1972. He grew up in a big house in Nyack, in the state of New York, a picturesque Victorian town next to the Hudson River. Cornell’s parents shared their loved of music, ballet, and literature with their children. Evenings were spent around the piano or listening to music.
Cornell is one of America's most innovative artists, known for his box sculptures, collages and experimental films that continue to influence many artists, writers, poets, filmmakers and designers.
He was not a sculptor, or a painter. In fact, he never had any professional training. He was first and foremost a collector. He loved to scour old book shops and second-hand stores looking for souvenirs, theatrical memorabilia, old prints and photographs, music scores, and French literature.
He made boxes using things that talk about what we cannot see: ideas, memories, fantasies, and dreams. Cornell’s constructions are enveloped in nostalgia; he was fascinated by the Victorian era. He created visual poems in which surface, form, texture, and light fit perfectly together. According to him, materials for making boxes are everywhere: in attics and basements, in bookshops, in the woods, and sometimes in the streets.
People, young and old, have been inspired by Cornell’s creations, like Susan Hazard’s sculptures, composed of recycled and found objects, or the art boxes made by pupils in a Montessori school (cf. links).
Each of these boxes tells a story, and, even if they are sometimes enigmatic, that’s what I like in this form of art.
Article by Alissa Viguier
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