the wonder in every day life

 

 

Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust
a long distance love affair with Europe

He took care of his disabled brother and widowed mother - family obligations were important to him.
He had no formal training in art at all.
During his lunch hour he looked into all things cultural.  He collected books and travel guides.
He didn't give any meanings in his work.  If people asked him questions, he wouldn't answer.
He had a non-elitist attitude, yet was very involved in the contemporary art world of his time.
The independence of his voice was admired by professional artists.
In 1967 he had two retrospectives at the same time.  One in California, one at the Guggenheim.
His understanding of time was not linear.
He felt connected to the past just as much as the present.
He didn't connect himself to the surrealists, but was included in exhibitions of their work.  He wrote to the MOMA director that what they do is black magic and what he does is white magic.
He wanted to address the imagination of a child's, more than the erotic of the surrealists.
He had an almost scientific drive to understand the world.
He was distraught by the loss of life in WWII and also by the loss of culture.
He left 30,000 pages of diaries - recorded ephemeral moments and ideas.
He believed that Art and Science were united in their desire to understand the world.
The soap bubble - an allegory of fleeting life - was used in his work.
He wanted to communicate the wonder in every day life.

My notes from the free lunch time lecture given by curator Sarah Lea at the Royal Academy of Arts London, England.