Joseph Cornell by Museum of Modern Art - 1980

Museum of Modern Art, 1980. Illustrated. Trade paperback. Very Good. Joseph Cornell remains one of the most popular artists of the 20th century. This work provides an insight into the artist's remarkable inner world: a universe populated with empty cages, mirrors, clay pipes, postage stamps, marbles, thimbles and paper scraps, Cornell collected in his basement repository and fashioned into self-contained constructions, montages, collages and films. The artist's relationship to both American and European Romanticism, his involvement with the Surrealist movement, the peculiar mechanics of his work, and a glimpse at his cinematic explorations are accompanied by an illuminating biography and numerous illustrations. This survey brings to life the work of a brilliant artist whose imaginative re-ordering of the world's chaos is still as inspirational as ever. Joseph Cornell (December 24, 1903 – December 29, 1972) was an American visual artist and film-maker, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmmaker. He was largely self-taught in his artistic efforts, and improvised his own original style incorporating cast-off and discarded artifacts.