Joseph Cornell Post-War and Contemporary Artist

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 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