Joseph Cornell and Surrealism

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), the American pioneer of collage, montage, and assemblage art, is sometimes regarded as a solitary star within the constellation of great Surrealists. This volume considers connections between Cornell and the Surrealist group during the 1930s and 1940s, during Cornell's artistic development and the heyday of Surrealism in the United States. He shared with the Surrealists his basic conception of the visual image as the product of poetic juxtaposition. In his best-known works--the collages, small constructions of found objects, and classic shadow boxes--he took key Surrealist methods to new directions. This book also examines Cornell's achievement in other formats, including his ground-breaking collage film and the open-ended and nonlinear archives of printed materials that he called "explorations." Joseph Cornell and Surrealism also explores the art, literature, music, and dance that nourished his unconventional artistic output.

These essays were commissioned for the catalogue Joseph Cornell et les surrealistes a New York, published to accompany the exhibition of the same name that was co-organized by the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia.

Aside from the editors, the contributors are Stephen Bann, Emmanuel Guigon, Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, Jodi Hauptman, Howard Hussey, Segolene Le Men, Camille Leveque-Claudet, Patrick Mauries, Anne Morra, and Francois-Rene Martin.

Matthew Affron is the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Sylvie Ramond is Director of the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Lyon.