Joseph Cornell
Wanderlust
4 July - 27 September 2015
The Sackler Wing, Burlington House
Saturday – Thursday 10am – 6pm
Friday 10am – 10pm
£11.50 (without donation £10). Concessions available. Friends of the RA and under 16s go free.
Friends of the RA go free
From a basement in New York, Joseph Cornell channelled his limitless imagination into some of the most original art of the 20th century. Step into his beguiling world at this landmark exhibition.
Cornell hardly ventured beyond New York State, yet the notion of travel was central to his art. His imaginary voyages began as he searched Manhattan’s antique bookshops and dime stores, collecting a vast archive of paper ephemera and small objects to make his signature glass-fronted ‘shadow boxes’.
These miniature masterpieces transform everyday objects into spellbinding treasures. Together they reveal his fascination with subjects from astronomy and cinema to literature and ornithology and especially his love of European culture, from the Romantic ballet to Renaissance Italy.
Wanderlust brings together 80 of Cornell’s most remarkable boxes, assemblages, collages and films, some never before seen outside the USA. Entirely self-taught, the independence of Cornell’s creative voice won the admiration of artists from Marcel Duchamp and the Surrealists, to Robert Motherwell and the Abstract Expressionists, with echoes of his work felt in Pop and Minimalist art.
Wanderlust is a long overdue celebration of an incomparable artist, a man the New York Times called “a poet of light; an architect of memory-fractured rooms and a connoisseur of stars, celestial and otherwise.”
Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust is organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London in collaboration with the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Supporters
2009-2017 Season supported by
Supported by
With additional generous support from
Sponsored by
With additional generous support
The Mayor Gallery
Aimee and Robert Lehrman
Maddocks Brown Foundation
James Corcoran
Tracy Lew
The Alan and Carol Kelly Charitable Fund
And other supporters of the Cornell Leadership Circle who wish to remain anonymous
2009-2016 Season supported by JTI
Reviews
"This is a first-rate exhibition of one of the 20th century’s most inspiring artists."
The Guardian"This show is never less than fascinating, and often exhilarating."
London Evening Standard"Spellbinding"
The Telegraph
"I don’t think this exhibition’s achievement can be overstated."
New Statesman
Joseph Cornell and travel
The title of our Joseph Cornell exhibition is 'Wanderlust'. Curator Sarah Lea describes how this theme is closely linked to Cornell's artistic practice, and his travels of the imagination.
How Joseph Cornell became an artist
How did Joseph Cornell, a man who had never had any formal training, become an artist? Sarah Lea, curator of 'Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust', describes his unorthodox career path.
Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust
A singular figure in American art, Joseph Cornell quietly assembled one of the 20th century’s most original bodies of work. His spellbinding ‘shadow boxes’ have not been shown in a major UK exhibition for a generation – now they’re coming to the RA.
What Friends of the RA are saying about the exhibition
We asked Friends of the Royal Academy what they thought about the exhibition 'Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust'. Here's what they had to say.
Gallery
Naples, c. 1942
Toward the Blue Peninsula: for Emily Dickinson, c. 1953
Untitled (Pinturicchio Boy), 1942-52
Habitat Group for a Shooting Gallery, 1943
Palace, 1943
Untitled (Celestial Navigation), 1956-58
Untitled Object (Mona Lisa), c. 1940-42
He preferred the ticket to the trip, the postcard to the place… Cornell’s boxes look like dreams to us, but the mind that made them was always wide awake.
The New Yorker
Five things you need to know about Joseph Cornell
One of the 20th–century art world’s most unassuming characters, Joseph Cornell was also amongst its most original and inventive. Cornell is best-known for his 'shadow boxes': modest, glass-fronted constructions which transport the viewer into imagined realms.
Cornell loved to roam Manhattan's dime stores in search of antique books, postcards and small objects, gradually amassing a vast collection of treasured finds. These would become the raw materials for his highly personal form of art.
Cornell never left America in his life, yet his creations offered him a way to travel through the centuries of history, the continents of the globe and even the celestial realm. His work is filled with a yearning for distant places and times.
In his many and varied interests, Cornell did not differentiate between the arts and sciences, nor between high-brow culture and popular entertainment. He saw Hollywood starlets, 18th–century ballerinas and Medici princesses as equally worthy subjects for his art.
Cornell lived an eccentric and extraordinary life. But while he is often characterised as an outsider, he was surprisingly engaged with the avant garde art movements of his time. He exhibited with the Surrealists, befriended artists from Marcel Duchamp to Robert Motherwell and continues to influence art today.
Related articles
Odd couples: Artists you never knew were friends
1 September 2016
Fun for kids: make a box like Cornell
1 September 2015
Inside Joseph Cornell's studio
25 August 2015
Talks and tours
Get more out of the exhibition
Exhibition tours
45 minutes, free with an exhibition ticket, no booking required
2.30pm Tuesdays, 7pm Fridays (7 July – 18 September)
Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust
Exhibition in focus guide
This in-depth and illustrated guide is perfect for teachers and students discussing Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust from the classroom.
Written specifically for school students, the guide contains biographical information about Joseph Cornell alongside a detailed explanation of his works.
Shop the Joseph Cornell exhibition range
Take home the official exhibition poster as a memento of this quirky and curious exhibition.
Take inspiration from Cornell's love of antiques with this vintage-effect hummingbird necklace on a 24" brass chain.
Write down your thoughts, notes and ideas in this pocket sized notebook featuring A Parrot for Juan Gris on the front cover.