Lot 113
  • 113

Joseph Cornell

Estimate
500,000 - 700,000 USD
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Description

  • Joseph Cornell
  • Untitled
  • signed on the reverse

  • painted wood and glass box construction with plastic balls, painted and collaged wood blocks, glass and plastic elements

  • 15 by 10 3/4 by 2 1/2 in. 38.1 by 27.3 by 6.4 cm.
  • Executed circa 1954.

Provenance

Estate of the artist
The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation
Ubu Gallery, New York
Acquired by the previous owner from the above in 2003

Condition

This work is in very good condition and sound overall. Some of the elements are affixed while others move intentionally in their compartments. There is some overall wear inherent to the original state of the found objects and the artist’s aesthetic, as is common for Cornell’s work. The exterior of the box exhibits evidence of wear as well as media losses as visible in the catalogue illustration.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Joseph Cornell's work Untitled is cerebral and yet manages to convey a playful spontaneity through the use of youthful ephemera within the constraints of the rigid box. Famously shy and eccentric, the artist rarely left New York and instead chose to spend much of his time at his family's home in Flushing, Queens.  In light of such isolation, the window-like nature of the box assumes an added identity; here, Cornell allows the viewer the opportunity to glimpse into the artist's world. 

The objects placed seemingly at random throughout the work - rubber balls, wooden stamps, plastic animals - are quite directly linked to the most profound relationship of the artist's life.  Born six years Joseph's junior, Robert Cornell lived his life plagued by debilitating cerebral palsy and his brother took an outsized interest in Robert's well-being.  The trinkets contained within the work are naturally imbued with the levity and joyousness of youth, and Robert, the perpetual child, could not have been far from Joseph's mind as he assembled these paeans to innocent pleasure. 

Cornell made many examples of these boxes which range from those completely filled with effluvient excess, to those which seem an exercise in minimalistic restraint.  This work, in its paucity of containment, seems to elucidate a certain sense of longing, a particular emptiness highlighted by the deliberateness with which the chambers are both full and void. It is an emptiness reflected in the social misgivings of the artist and his preference for his outsider locale in Queens even while being canonized as one of the preeminent New York artists working in the 20th century.