- American artist and sculptor
- One of the pioneers of assemblage
- Influenced by Surrealists
- Avant-garde experimental filmmaker
- Collaborated with filmmakers Rudy Burckhardt, Stan Brakhage, and Larry Jordan
- Possessed orginal drawing's from Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince
- The exiled Saint-Exupery's wife, consuelo, was similarly an artist and sculptor.
- Compared to Kurt Schwitters for his ability to create poetry from the commonplace.
- Though unlike Schwitters, he was not fascinated by the discarded but by fragments of once beautiful and precious objects found in bookshops and thrift stores.
- Boxes relied on the Surrealist use of irrational juxtaposition, and on the evocation of nostalgia for appeal.
- Never regarded himself as a Surrealist. Though admired the work and technique of Surrealists like Max Ernst and Rene Magritte.
- Heavily influenced by the American Transcendentalists, Hollywood starlets (to whom he sent boxes he had dedicated to them), French Symbolists such as Stephane Mallarme and Gerard de Nerval, and dancers of the 19th century ballet such as Marie Taglioni and Fanny Cerrito.
- Corenll's 1936 found-film montage Rose Hobart was made from splicing together existing film stock.
- Premiered at Julien Levy Gallery in December 1936 during the first Surrealist exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in NY.
- Salvador Dali was outraged at his movie cause he just had the same idea of applying collage techniques to film.
- After the screening, remarked to Cornell that he should stick to making boxes and stop making films.
- Traumatized, shy, retiring Cornell showed his films rarely thereafter.
- Boxed assemblages created from found objects.
- Shadow boxes, usually with a glass pane in front.
- Arranged various fragments of photographs or Victorian objects in a way that combines the sterness of Constructivism with the fantasy of Surrealism.
Medici Slot Machine
http://www.boxofjars.com/vol1archive/Surrealism/jcni_08.jpg
Interactive and meant to be handled.
Soap Bubble Sets
https://www.google.com/search?q=cornell+soap+bubble+sets&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=E3gDVLWSM6O1iwLTyoGYCA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75
Pink Palace
https://www.google.com/search?q=cornell+soap+bubble+sets&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=E3gDVLWSM6O1iwLTyoGYCA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75#q=cornell+pink+palace&tbm=isch
Hotel
https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+cornell+hotel&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SHgDVJLUOMrHigLNzYEI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75
Observatory
https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+cornell+hotel&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SHgDVJLUOMrHigLNzYEI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75#q=joseph+cornell+observatory&tbm=isch
Space Object
https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+cornell+hotel&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SHgDVJLUOMrHigLNzYEI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75#q=joseph+cornell+space+object+boxes&tbm=isch
Aviary
https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+cornell+hotel&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SHgDVJLUOMrHigLNzYEI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75#q=joseph+cornell+aviary&tbm=isch
Soap Bubble Sets
https://www.google.com/search?q=cornell+soap+bubble+sets&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=E3gDVLWSM6O1iwLTyoGYCA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75
Pink Palace
https://www.google.com/search?q=cornell+soap+bubble+sets&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=E3gDVLWSM6O1iwLTyoGYCA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75#q=cornell+pink+palace&tbm=isch
Hotel
https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+cornell+hotel&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SHgDVJLUOMrHigLNzYEI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75
Observatory
https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+cornell+hotel&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SHgDVJLUOMrHigLNzYEI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75#q=joseph+cornell+observatory&tbm=isch
Space Object
https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+cornell+hotel&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SHgDVJLUOMrHigLNzYEI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75#q=joseph+cornell+space+object+boxes&tbm=isch
Aviary
https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+cornell+hotel&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=SHgDVJLUOMrHigLNzYEI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2133&bih=1033&dpr=0.75#q=joseph+cornell+aviary&tbm=isch
