Joseph Cornell

This solo exhibition was the first major retrospective of the art of Joseph Cornell (1903–1972) and the final show curated by Pasadena Art Museum Director Walter Hopps. It displayed work spanning over 30 years of Cornell’s career and included nearly 100 “box constructions” and collages. The box constructions consisted of units fabricated from materials like metal and wood, whose interiors were filled with found objects and consumer products in dense arrangements. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue, with an introduction by James Demetrion and an essay by Fairfield Porter. Philip Leider of the New York Times wrote of the exhibition: “Cornell’s works constantly teeter on the abyss of morbidity, obsessiveness, even necrophilia, but manage always, magically, to transcend these dangers and take their places as completely self-contained works of art.”