Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams [Hardcover]

Diane Waldman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 2002

Recent books on Cornell have brought new attention to the artist and increased his popularity, introducing his art to new audiences. These recent books, however, only deal with specific areas of Cornell's oeuvre or are not illustrated. This book by Diane Waldman covers Cornell's entire career- and it will be sought out by old and new fans of his work. Out of the fantasies that enriched a private, often reclusive life, Joseph Cornell created, in his famed shadow boxes and collages, a "poetic theater of memory" in which fables of the unconscious were played out by characters as varied as a Medici princess, a blue swan, and a supporting company of angels, parrots, and ballerinas. Using the same seemingly commonplace materials that compose the classic fairy tale and our daily lives- thimbles, eggshells, mirrors, and maps among them- Cornell beckons us into a world at once distantly magical and tantalizingly, nostalgically "home." Uniquely Cornell's, yet very much our own, this private universe of objects and images, vivid with half-remembered fantasies, reminds us ultimately of the strangeness of the familiar, the odd familiarity of the strange, the final mysteriousness of the world we thought we knew. Diane Waldman probes Cornell's elusive imagery and traces the development from his earliest Surrealist-inspired collages of the 1930s, through the masterful constructions of the 1940s and 1950s, and the artist's lifelong experimentation with film, to his return to collage in the years before his death in 1972.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Cornell's exquisite boxes, intimate constructions filled with found objects and collaged images, merit repeated visits just as poems call out to be read again and again, and each new Cornell book discloses something fresh and illuminating about this most magnetic and lyrical of artists. Waldman, an art historian, author, and former curator and deputy director of the Guggenheim Museum, knew Cornell and was the first to study his unique art. Now, nearly four decades later, she brings a wealth of long-brewing insights to this gorgeous volume, which boasts not only Waldman's lucid and expert commentary on Cornell's intriguing influences but also some of the finest color reproductions of his work ever published. Waldman discusses Cornell's fascination with games, Victorian imagery, ballet, movies, all things French, the young Medicis, constellations, hotels, and birds and cites the many poets and artists he revered, Dickinson and Vermeer among them. Ultimately, the profound enchantment of Cornell's poetic boxes can be attributed to their reflection of his "deeply reverential attitude toward the universe as a mirror of mysterious truths." Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Waldman...interprets with a light hand the imagery of his boxes..." -- New York Times Book Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (May 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810912279
• ISBN-13: 978-0810912274
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #526,441 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Primer On Cornell and His Work, November 15, 2002

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"50cent-haircut" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams (Hardcover)

Finally, a beautiful, comprehensive book about Joseph Cornell and his work. Diane Waldman knew Cornell intimately ever since she was an art student (and through doing gallery shows for him), and this affinity shows; this is ultimately a book of love and tribute to a friend.

The biographical material is excellent. Most fascinating segments deal with Cornell's stranger sides, such as when at his brother Robert's funeral, Joseph put a sheet over his head and laughed, creeping everyone out, and explained it was only a side joke that Robert would have understood. Cornell was terribly timid in front of women (particularly the ones he fancied) and had a complete dependence on his mother (he died months after she did). Waldman probes these and other significant personal issues (such as his association with Surrealism, and how the younger artists that have passed through him have influenced his work) and examines how they factored in Cornell's art. The book is generous with illustrations - Waldman supports her points with not only Cornell's work, but with other artists that were influential to him.

However, it is the lonely and telling poetry of Cornell's work that is the heart of this book. The boxes that Waldman chooses to include are presented intelligently, and beautifully. The innocence and nostalgia of each box is lovingly portrayed. The Medici series - Cornell's especially heartbreakingly beautiful and mysteriously passionate work - is presented perfectly by Waldman with thoughtful commentary and context, capturing in full its yearning and ardor. Waldman has given us a book that speaks eloquently about why Cornell is an artists people will remember for generations hereafter.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Restoration of a Worthy Magnum Opus, February 28, 2006

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Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams (Hardcover)

Fortunate is the arts library to have the restored and embellished 1977 monograph on the life and work of American artist Joseph Cornell, an artist whose importance not only to the craft of assemblage but to the history of American art continues to grow as the years pass. Author Diane Waldman initially based her monograph on extensive interviews with Cornell and his confreres in preparing the 1967 retrospective of Cornell's art for the Guggenheim Museum. And fine though that now extinct monograph was, it was important to update it with the added information gleaned from the 1978 gift of the bulk of Cornell's archives donated by the heirs of Cornell to the Smithsonian Museum, forming the Joseph Cornell Study Center in Washington, DC.

But enough of background. Waldman the writer and historian presents here one of the more sensitive tributes to Joseph Cornell in print. Included in this rather brief book are over forty color plates of many of Cornell's greatest works. The color reproductions and photography of these basically three-dimensional works is outstanding and allows the viewer to pause with each work, enhance the visual appreciation with the accompanying writing by the author, and then return once again to the biographical data of a man at odds with conformity and with somewhat fractured social graces.

Joseph Cornell was a unique artist and one whose impact on all forms of art (especially the eventual 'installation art' phase) is yearly more appreciated. This fine book is as sound a source of information on his life and works as any of the now many volumes on the shelves. Highly Recommended to both the novice and the expert. Grady Harp, February 06

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a wonderfu book, October 8, 2007

By 

Crafty Dogma (Sydney) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams (Paperback)

Joseph Cornell's work is beautiful. It's a pity that he is such a poorly-known artist but as the author suggests perhaps he was born a few decades too late or his art was a few decades too early. He has certainly missed out on his rightful place in most books on Surrealist art. This book is very-well presented - a photograph or two of Cornell's work on almost every page and text not only explaining the inspiration and the work process behind the assemblages but also conveying the quirky nature of the artist. If Joseph Cornell showed little humour as a person then there is plenty of it to be found in his work (e.g., lobster ballet box). This art book is so well-written and interesting that it can be read from cover to cover in one day. There is something new to be found in the photographs every time.