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Maker(s):	Cornell, Joseph
Culture:	American (1903-1972)
Title:	Untitled [Sand Fountain]
Date Made:	ca. 1955
Type:	Sculpture
Materials:	Wood, sand, glass, metal, paint, and ink
Place Made:	North America; United States; New York; New York
Measurements:	Overall: 12 3/4 in x 8 in x 4 1/4 in; 32.4 cm x 20.3 cm x 10.8 cm
Accession Number:	MH 2002.15.2
Credit Line:	Gift of the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation
Museum Collection:	Mount Holyoke College Art Museum

Currently on view

Description:
Blond wood box with dark green sand in the bottom. A piece of glass and marble are in the sand. Painted white wood fragments are attached at the top with nails. An abstract circle is painted/drawn on the white wood.

Label Text:
A largely self-taught and reclusively artist and experimental filmmaker, Joseph Cornell was an early pioneer of assemblage, cohering found objects into compositions that often took the form of shadow boxes. Many of his boxes were meant to be interactive, designed to amuse and delight those who inspired and to whom he would often send the work.

Like many of his Surrealist contemporaries, Cornell created powerful visual poetics from the quotidian. Cornell was not interested in refuse or detritus, however. His often nostalgic boxes were inspired by his Christian Science beliefs and affinity for Hollywood starlets, and created by assembling once precious objects mined from New York thrift and bookstores, transformed through layering and juxtaposition.

Tags:
abstract; allegory; Christianity; conceptual art; nonrepresentational art; science; still lifes

Subjects:
Glass; Still-life in art; Science; Conceptual art; Christianity; Art, Abstract; Allegory; nonrepresentational art

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+2002.15.2

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.