JOSEPH CORNELL’S DREAMS
Joseph Cornell is known for the oneiric quality of his collages and films, and the strange power of his box sculptures—toy-like constructions whose playfulness and humor are anchored in a profound melancholy and loneliness.
Catherine Corman has combed through the voluminous diaries Cornell kept throughout his life, now in the care of the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, in search of the artist's own dreams. What she found are brief flashes of images, and short, enigmatic narratives of illumination--the verbal equivalent of Cornell boxes.
