The works of Joseph Cornell

Born- December 24, 1903

Death - December 29, 1972

From New York City

Joseph Cornell is most famous for his collage/boxed creations.  He was a Surrealist.  He was a collector of special items.  If he went to a concert, he saved the program.  Had a favorite restaurant or picture, he saved it.  I'm seeing a pattern, oh yeah....my daughter does the same thing.  She collects little items from everywhere she goes.  I used to do the same thing.  He frequented thrift shops and collected beautiful items.  Cornell decided to start art boxes of these special objects.  He would visit book stores and collect special books and create beautiful works of art out of these also.  But his art did not stop there.  He also clipped together snippets of films to create what he felt were humorous works of art.  He became known as one of the first pop artists.

This is one of his most famous films.....Rose Hobart.  Lydia didn't see the "humor" in the film.  But she notice the changes.



Rose Hobart (1939) by Lost_Shangri_La_Horizon

Joseph Cornell's "Rose Hobart" (1936) is a short, 19 minute experimental film created by the artist Joseph Cornell, who cut and re-edited the Hollywood film "East of Borneo" into one of America's most famous surrealist short films. Cornell was fascinated by the star of East of Borneo, an actress named Rose Hobart, and named his short film after her. The piece consists of snippets from East of Borneo combined with shots from a documentary of an eclipse. When Cornell screened the film, he projected it through a piece of blue glass and slowed the speed of projection to that of a silent film. The original soundtrack is removed, and the film is accompanied instead by "Forte Allegre" and "Belem Bayonne", two songs from Nestor Amaral's "Holiday in Brazil," a record that Cornell had found at a junk shop. 

In 2001, Rose Hobart was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Sites to visit:

Joseph Cornell Box

Some more of his artworks:

 This definitely looks like a Lydia.

Some of his re-created books....

I was going to take Lydia thrift shopping, but to be honest didn't have a lot of extra time this week.  So we will save that project for next year.  One of Joseph Cornell's famous "boxed" art pieces was about Lauren Bacall.  

So we decided to do a Justin Beiber Box.  I printed several pictures of him, including his favorite foods.  (Now I call that love that I spent precious time searching the internet for Justin Beiber likes and dislikes...lol)  I turned her lose with an empty cereal box after I cut it for her.

 This was her finish project....Turned out pretty cute.

We kind of felt like Joseph Cornell was one of the original scrapbookers.  He could've easily run a Smash Club!!  We are helping to start one of these clubs in our homeschool group!  We are very excited and already been working on our book.

Next artist is......Louise Bourgeois