Joseph Cornell

About

Joseph Cornell (1903–1972) was an American visual artist, filmmaker, and pioneer of assemblage art, best known for his intricate shadow boxes and collages constructed from found objects. Largely self-taught, he lived a reclusive life in Flushing, Queens, New York, caring for his mother and disabled brother while working various day jobs, including as a textile salesman. Cornell was deeply influenced by Surrealism after encountering Max Ernst's collages at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1931, which inspired his own poetic assemblages evoking nostalgia, fantasy, mythology, astronomy, ballet, and Hollywood. An obsessive collector, he amassed thousands of ephemera from bookstores, thrift stores, and beaches, organizing them into dossiers that fueled his lyrical, dreamlike works blending the commonplace with the surreal.

Surrealist-influenced assemblage with poetic, nostalgic shadow boxes and collages using found objects