Untitled

Maker Joseph Cornell (American, 1903 - 1972)

Collections

ClassificationsCOLLAGES

Daten.d.

Mediumfiberboard panel with a photo attached

Dimensions12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation

Status

Not on view

Label TextThis work is reminiscent of Cornell's earliest Surrealist collages from the early 1930s. Influenced by Max Ernst's 1929 collage novel La Femme 100 Têtes, Cornell cut and rearranged old book illustrations and 19th-century engravings into surprising and uncanny combinations. By the 1960s, Cornell used color photographs in his work, but the neat suturing of images in this work stands in marked contrast to collages where Cornell's hand and working process is more apparent. The greater proportion of sky to sea in the piece creates a sense of infinite space similar to the limitless landscapes by Surrealists Roberto Matta, Giorgio de Chirico, and Salvador Dali.

Object number2005.19.9

Terms