Joseph Cornell

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), American sculptor of assemblages that nostalgically allude to the artist's private world. Born in Nyack, New York State, he was influenced by Dada, Surrealism, Cubist abstraction, and collage. Work characteristic of his output evolved in the mid-1930s; it included a glass-fronted box containing found objects, such as photographs and printed material, as well as multiple-image and freeze-frame film fragments, carefully arranged in surrealistic juxtaposition. An example of the latter is Medici Slot Machine (1942, private collection, New York). These uniquely expressive constructions that create a world of their own have been likened by critics to the reminiscent novels of the French author Marcel Proust.