3508 - CORNELL, JOSEPH (Nyack 1903 – 1972 New York): "Object"

CORNELL, JOSEPH (Nyack 1903 – 1972 New York): "Object" Cardboard box covered with printed paper, containing colored wooden balls and plastic doll cutlery pieces, in a Plexiglas case with an integrated magnifying glass; signed on the inside of the lid, dated 1939, and titled H: 14.5 cm, W: 18 cm, D: 17.5 cm Plexiglass with scratch marks. Provenance: Galerie 1900-2000, Paris, June 12, 1997; European private collection. Exhibitions: *L'objét surrealiste*, IVAM Centro Julio González, Valencia, October 16, 1997 – January 4, 1998; El surrealismo entre viejo y nuevo mundo, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, December 4, 1989 – February 4, 1990 (illustrated in the exhibition catalog, p. 221). The self-taught artist Joseph Cornell spent most of his life in seclusion in Flushing, Queens. Except for his time as a student at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts, which he left without graduating, he never left New York. In addition to his artistic work, he cared for his mother and his brother, who required nursing care. This reserved life, which took place predominantly in private, shaped his art: it arose from the observation, collection, and reorganization of impressions and found materials. His method was based on the artistic practice of collecting. At flea markets, in antique shops, and bookstores, Cornell searched for photographs, engravings, toys, or small objects, which he recombined. He also created collages, compiled thematic dossiers, and worked with found films, which he edited into poetic film collages. Throughout his life, Cornell participated in major exhibitions and was recognized early on as a distinctive voice within modern art. He became best known for his shadow boxes from the early 1930s: These glass and wood boxes, in which he blended found objects, images, and everyday items into dense, timeless visual worlds. These works, now considered iconic, are characterized as much by a precise, almost archival order as by a subtle sense of atmosphere and symbolism. Cornell is regarded as a quiet pioneer of assemblage, whose works contributed significantly to the development of this genre as a form of artistic expression. Auction date: November 6, 2026, 3:00 p.m.