JOSEPH CORNELL

December 24th, 1903 – December 29th, 1972
Born in Nyack, NY

American artist and sculptor who was one of the pioneers of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmmaker. A self-taught artist, he worked with collected objects such as pages from old books and dime-store trinkets and transformed everyday materials into extraordinary universes. He is best known for his box constructions and is regarded as the first and most important American surrealist. Retrospectives of his work were held in 1967 at the Pasadena Art Museum and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 1970, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York mounted an exhibition of his collages.