Joseph Cornell

He couldn’t draw or paint. He didn’t consider himself an artist, instead he called himself a “maker” or “designer.” Living in New York City in the depression, Cornell became a collector of small objects and photographs, things he found on his walks through the city. One day in 1931, Cornell visited Julian Levy as he prepared photographs by Alfred Stieglitz for show. Levy was just about to open the Julien Levy Gallery, and Cornell watched as Levy unpacked new surrealist collages by Max Ernst. This sparked Cornell to go home and make his own collages, using the photographs he’d been collecting. He brought the collages back to Levy, and his work debued along with the surrealists from Paris: Max Ernst, Man Ray, and Salvador Dali in the 1932 exhibition Surréalisme at the Julien Levy Gallery, the first Surrealist exhibit in America. One of Cornell’s first collages ended up being the show postcard.

Joseph Cornell later went on to build his famous shadow boxes, assemblage arrangements of his delightful found objects. [image_with_animation image_url=”8528″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]

Assemblage

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“My boxes are life’s experiences aesthetically expressed.”  – Joseph Cornell

[divider line_type=”Full Width Line” line_thickness=”1″ divider_color=”default” custom_height=”20 Are you a collector of photographs and found objects? Consider taking Paul D. McKee’s Found Object Sculpture class April 14/15, and Melanie Reed’s Integrated Collage Design April 21/28. You don’t have to call yourself an artist, you can just make stuff.

Apply this 48 hour coupon code at checkout for 20% off: MAKERS. (Don’t wait! Coupon expires March 14th.)