In the Fall of 2005, I was surfing one evening and came across a web page (that I can no longer seem to find) that talked about creating a box for inspiration. The page used, as an illustration, Joseph Cornell's "L'Egypte de Mlle Cleo de Merode cours elementaire d'histoire naturelle." (left)
Oh, I was inspired alright. It inspired me to create art in boxes. And while my "style" (I guess you could call it a style...) was vastly different from Cornell's, his work still fascinates me.
"[Cornell's] lyrical, often surprising combinations of materials and ideas are usually associated with surrealism, a European art movement that emphasized dreams and poetic dislocation in the 1920s and 1930s. Surrealism, however, was just one of many resources that Cornell called upon as an artist driven by innate curiosity and creativity rather than by theories and formal art training."
Today, I actually got to see "L'Egypte" - along with 179 other pieces, countless photographs, film collage, storyboards, letters, and more - even his
first collage. My wife and I traveled the
unbearable distance (ok, so it was under 2 miles) to the
Peabody Essex Museum for
Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination. PEM is a wonderful art museum anyway, with large collections of maritime and Asian art. But walking through 4 galleries of Cornell's works was an unparalleled treat.
I recently read
Utopia Parkway: The Life And Work Of Joseph Cornell. I had to take it in small doses: Cornell's life was not a generally happy existence, and he was... odd. But it was all still fresh in my memory, and today I got to see so many of the pieces that I'd read about and knew the story behind.
If you should get the chance, see this show!
The way-too-kind Joan Y (Drawing on Nature) has given me the You Make My Day Award! What a nice surprise on a morning when I feeling a cold coming on. Thank you, Joan: it's mutual!
