(Nyack, New York 1903–1972 New York)
“Untitled (Art Poetique by Yves Bonnefoy)” 1970, signed Joseph Cornell on the reverse, collage on paper, 30 x 23 cm, in artist’s frame

Provenance:
ACA Galleries, New York (label on the reverse)
Annina Nosei Collection, New York (label on the reverse) –
acquired directly from the above by the present owner in the beginning of the 1980s –
European Private Collection

Joseph 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. (…)
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.
www.royalacademy.org.uk