Cornell Cool August 17, 2006

Joseph Cornell, "Ideals are like stars, about 1957-58, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1984.124.71

The "Week Ahead" column in the Sunday, August 13, New York Times notes a Joseph Cornell exhibiton at the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, New York. Holland Cotter's brief description imparts some of the magic and wonder of Cornell's work:

Andromeda Hotel: The Art of Joseph Cornell...brings together more than 40 fragile collages and assemblages by this urbane but hermetic American artist, many of them incorporating images of heavenly bodies and maps of constellations. The glass-covered shadowboxes unite natural science, theater and fantasy. Each is a self-contained personal space opening onto fathomless realms of dreams. How cool is that?

We are preparing our own Cornell exhibition at SAAM.  Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination -- the first retrospective in twenty-five years of the artist's work -- will feature 200 of his finest boxes, collages, objects, dossiers, films, and graphic designs. The exhibition opens November 17, 2006. Cool indeed.

• Joseph Cornell,  American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum