Press kit

JosePh Cornell and surrealism in new York:

dalí, duChamP, ernst, man raY...

MuseuM of fine Arts - Lyon

oCtober 18, 2013 – FebruarY 10, 2014

JosePh Cornell and surrealism in new York: dalí, duChamP, ernst, man raY...

oCtober 18, 2013 – FebruarY 10, 2014museum oF Fine arts - lYon

the exhibition Joseph Cornell and surrealism in new York focuses on the work of Cornell, the american pioneer of collage, montage, and assemblage art, in the decades of the 1930s and the 1940s. these years span both Cornell’s emergence and maturation as an artist and the heyday of surrealism in the united states. surrealism launched Cornell as an exhibiting artist. it was also the cultural milieu that shaped and molded him through the first half of his career. the exhibition presents key works by Cornell as well as images by other major artists, such as salvador dalí, marcel duchamp, max ernst, and man ray, to evoke that surrealist environment in new York and to trace Cornell’s course through it. this will be the first exhibition focusing on Cornell to be hosted by a French museum since the touring exhibition from the museum of modern art in new York visited the musée d’art moderne in Paris in 1981.

While Cornell has been the subject of large monographic exhibitions in the usA, Joseph Cornell and surrealism in new york is the first to place this great American master within the larger international context of surrealism. More specifically, it centers on surrealism’s catalyzing effect on Cornell’s art. surrealism activated the development of Cornell’s signature working method: collage and the related procedures of montage, construction, and assemblage. And it was to surrealism that Cornell owed his basic conception of the visual image as the product of poetic juxtaposition. With this in mind, the exhibition will explore the diversity and interconnectedness of Cornell’s artistic practices and formats. these include, of course, the two-and three-dimensional formats for which he is best known: collages, found object pieces, and shadow box constructions containing found objects. the other major strands of Cornell’s achievement will also receive in-depth examination: the artist’s engagement with photography, his ground-breaking work in collage film, and the open-ended and non-linear archives of printed materials that he called his «explorations.» Juxtapositions with key works by other artists—Marcel Duchamp, salvador Dalí, Alberto Giacometti, Mina Loy, rené Magritte, Lee Miller, Man ray, yves tanguy, among others-will elucidate his activity in the context of surrealism.

the conjunction of Cornell with new york surrealism sets up a number of key themes for the exhibition. one such theme is Cornell as urban archivist, who explores a specific milieu, the city and its outlying suburbs, and turns his discoveries into art. Another is the encounter between the home-grown and the foreign. Here the issue is not only Cornell’s association with members of the community of french exiles and expatriates living in new york, but also very importantly, if on a more abstract level, his attachment to (and use of) manifold aspects of european culture.

the most fundamental theme for the exhibition, however, is what aligned Cornell most profoundly with surrealism: a great sensitivity expressed and explored on the level of artistic practice to the phenomenon of the “curiosity,” meaning objects (natural and fabricated, familiar and fantastic) which do not by normal convention belong to the realm of the fine arts, and an intense exploration of the devices, technologies, and instruments (frequently amazing or spectacular in their own right) that organize, preserve, and convey such things to the eye.

exhibition Curatorssylvie ramond, conservateur en chef du patrimoine, director of the Museum of fine Arts of Lyonmatthew aFFron, Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art

this international loan exhibition is organized by the Museum of fine Arts of Lyon in collaboration with the fralin Museum of Art, university of Virginia. it will be accompanied by a multi-authored exhibition catalogue containing new scholarship on Cornell. symposia will be held in france at the institut national d’Histoire de l’Art (inHA) on february 7 and 8 2014; and in the united states in the spring of 2014, as a collaboration between the fralin Museum of Art and the Virginia Museum of fine Arts in richmond.

the cultural cooperation network frAMe (french regional American Museum exchange) supports the organization of the exhibition Joseph Cornell and surrealism in new york at the Museum of fine Arts of Lyon. the exhibition will be presented at the fralin Museum of Art at the university of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia (usA), in spring 2014. the exhibition is organized with support from the terra foundation for American Art.

this exhibition is recognized as being of « intérêt national » by the « Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication / Direction générale des patrimoines / service des musées de france ».As such it benefits exceptionally from financial support from the french state.

JosePh Cornell and CollaGe

Joseph Cornell was profoundly struck by Max ernst’s parable-collage La femme 100 têtes (fig. 1), and he produced his first ‘montages’ in 1932 and showed them to Julien Levy a few days after the opening of his gallery (fig. 2). inspired by black and white 19th century engravings, these works were subsequently presented at the surrealism exhibition at the gallery (fig. 3). His encounters with Man ray and Lee Miller the following year led him to stray from his initial inspiration and modify his techniques by including details of photographs in his works and adding color to them. Although the future would see the ‘box’ format become his principal means of expression he would use collage on numerous occasions, most notably in order to satisfy the demands of various revues and magazines.

fig. 2Joseph Cornelluntitled (schooner)1931Collage of photomechanical reproductions on paperboard mounted to paperboardWashington, Hirshhorn Museum

fig. 3Joseph Cornelloriginal Collage for surréalisme exhibition catalogue, new york, Julien Levy Gallery1932Private collection

fig. 1max ernstLa mer de jubilation1929Collage for La femme 100 têtesParis, Musée national d’Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou

Cornell contributed to a special edition of View in January 1943 entitled ‘Americana fantastica’ which featured one of his collages on the cover. it evoked life in America and the marvels to be seen there (fig. 4). He would rarely use this creative format again until the 1950s, at a time when he lacked the material he needed for his boxes and the declining health of his mother and brother had obliged him to abandon his urban wanderings. He concentrated all his energies on collages and abandoned engraving and contemporary photographs, preferring instead to use elements from color magazines such as Arizona Highways, national Geogra-phic Magazine and Art news. Cornell confirmed his renewed interest in the visual poetry of collage and he acknowledged the determining impact that collage had had upon his life when, a few years before his death, he wrote the following words in his diary:

“collage” = lifeeidetic image – an image (experienced especially by children) which revives a

previous optical impression with the clearness of hallucination.

fig. 4Joseph CornellCover for View , « Americana fantastica » issueJanvier 1943Houston, the Menil Collection

JosePh Cornell and boxes

Although Joseph Cornell made his artistic debut with collages, he would become a major figure thanks to his box creations. His interest in this format began in the 1920s whilst he was working as a travelling salesman for William Whitman’s textile company on Madison square. He was often to be seen in the shops and boutiques on 25th and 32nd streets, and it was in one of them that he first discovered the small boxes which he used as presentation cases for his objects. in autumn 1932, Julien Levy organized an exhibition at which Cornell exhibited his ‘shadow boxes’ – small boxes within which he placed freely-moving objects such as thimbles attached to needles, porcelain angels, and tiny silver balls placed within glass bell jars. these works resembled compass boxes. He continued in this vein in 1936 with soap Bubble set, which was the first box to feature the style which would establish his reputation (fig. 5).

fig. 5Joseph Cornelluntitled (soap Bubble set)1936BoxHartford, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

fig. 6Joseph Cornelluntitled n°3, soap Bubble set vers 1955Boxstrasbourg, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain

exposed that same year at the new york Museum of Modern Art in the fantastic Art, Dada and surrealism exhibition, soap Bubble set marked a turning point in Cornell’s art. it contained certain motifs such as maps of celestial bodies that would become recurrent themes in his work (fig. 6). He also reused a certain number of other images and objects in what was to become a series of works. fascinated at first by major female artists such as dancers and actresses, to whom he paid magnificent homage, he radically modified his work in the mid-1940s and the presentation of his ‘Aviaries’ at the egan Gallery heralded a new style of box in which his passion for literary detail disappeared, giving way to abstract arrangements of shapes, lines and volumes. Although Cornell went on to construct new box series in this style, such as Dovecots and Hotels, he eventually began to concentrate mainly on ways of perfecting older box styles before progressively abandoning the box format altogether in order to work on other means of expression.

JosePh Cornell and Cinema

Joseph Cornell discovered the seventh Art early on in a cinema in nayack, and in the 1920s he began to compile a collection of numerous short films by George Méliès and Louis feuillade. He discovered the surrealist films of Luis Bunuel and salvador Dali – L’Age d’or and un chien andalou – in 1933. this avant-garde style of film inspired him to write the scenario for Monsieur Phot, a film which tells the story of a photographer who finds himself confronted with the power of his imagination. He began making his own films in 1936 and used the collage method of splicing pieces of film together to create rose Hobart (fig.7), a film which consists of a series of short scenes taken from Georges Melford’s adventure film, east of Borneo and from a documentary film on an eclipse. His cinematic activities were accompanied by the creation of boxes in honor of famous actresses such as Hedy Lamarr, Jennifer Jones, Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe. Cornell concentrated on films during the 1950s, and would use scenes shot by other film makers. He collaborated in this way with Larry Jordan, rudy Buckhardt and stan Brakhage. Looking back on his work with Cornell on Centuries of June, Brakhage said that “it would be an exaggeration to say that he ‘directed’ my filming, but nevertheless his presence and constant suggestions - often made by simply raising his hand or even his eyebrows - made it his film entirely. in 1963, the first grouped projection of Joseph Cornell’s films took place in artists’ premises belonging to Walter de Maria and robert Whitman. it bore witness to the importance of his work in cinema, as was illustrated a few years later when he donated some of his films to the Anthology film Archives.

fig. 7Joseph Cornellfilm stills rose Hobart1936new york, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

JosePh Cornell and surrealism

the surrealist movement declared its philosophical principles in Paris in 1924 with the publication of André Breton’s Manifeste du surrealisme, a document which defined the movement as being “Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express - verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner, the actual functioning of thought.”. Among the brilliant painters and poets who joined the surrealist movement under the aegis of Breton were Paul elouard, rené Crevel, Max ernst, André Masson and Joan Miro. they were joined shortly thereafter by yves tanguy and Hans Arp. A number of surrealists left their own countries and moved to America at the beginning of the second World War and they would get together at the Julien Levy Gallery, thus confirming the international status of the movement as well as the gallery’s future role as a pivotal element of the rise of the surrealist movement in new york. it was there that Cornell met many artists, including Max ernst, salvador Dali (fig. 8), Man ray, Marcel Duchamp (fig. 9), Lee Miller (fig. 10), Dorothy tanning, and the group of neo-romantics represented by Pavel tchelitchew.

fig. 8salvador daliforgotten Horizon1936oil paint on mahoganyLondres, tate Modern

this close contact with surrealists led Cornell to be associated with the movement, most notably in the wake of the fantastic art, Dada and surrealism exhibition. upset with having been given this label, he wrote to the museum’s Director, Alfred H. Barr Jr. to say that:“i do not share in the subconscious and dream theories of the surrealists. While fervently admiring much of their work, i have never been an official surrealist, and i believe that surrealism has healthier possibilities than have been developed.”. Whereas the Dadaists and surrealists explored the bizarre, the irrational and the unexpected, Cornell decided to develop a more poetic aspect of happenstance and dreams. He appealed for “white magic” to oppose the darker tendencies of surrealism and established himself as a satellite of this constellation of artists. this arrangement gave him what he needed to surpass their ideology and open up new forms of expression which presaged both pop art and minimalist art.

fig. 9marcel duchampBoîte-en-valise1941-1966strasbourg, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain

fig. 10lee millerPortrait of Joseph Cornell (from the series twelve needles Dancing on the Point of an Angel)1932-1933Gelatin silver printGift of Donald Windham, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, inv. 2000.39.1

JosePh Cornell and musiC

in the 1920s, Joseph Cornell began collecting various revues and other works which stimulated his interest in music. He would often go to the Metropolitan opera House and he acquired recordings of Claude Debussy, Maurice ravel an erik satie. fascinated by their work, he created a number of collages in their honor which he called Dedications. When he changed his working format and began making boxes, musicians became his theme of predilection. He created symphony in C in memory of Paul Dukas, untitled (sati and ravel) and the Caliph of BagDAD, named after the opera by françois-Adrien Boieldieu. Cornwell appreciated opera, as can be seen in his diary entries, one of which was written less than a year before he died. in it, he wrote that he would never forget the arias of the Barber of seville, which he had first heard during his youth. Another example of his interest in opera came in the form of Maria, a pamphlet he wrote in 1954, and he published another pamphlet the following year entitled Bel Canto Pet. respectively dedicated to the opera singers Maria Malibran Garcia and Julia Grisi, these two pamphlets would be the only ones that Cornell wrote.

JosePh Cornell and danCe

in 1933, the 25 years of russian Ballet exhibition at the Julian Levy Gallery presented serge Lifar’s collection of mock-ups of stage decor, costumes and drawings by artists including Juan Gris, Max ernst and Pavel tchelitchew. Cornell met tchelitchew a few years later and was thereby introduced to the milieu of dance. He would later meet Lincoln Kirstein, the co-founder of the Archives de la Dance and would draw on these experiences, which he complemented by reading a number of lectures by théophile Gauthier and researching material in other areas of his life. Put together, this wide-ranging research would enable him to express his passion for dance. it was within this context that, deeply influenced by a lithographic portrait of fanny Cerrito by Josef Kriehuber a century earlier, Cornell dedicated his first portfolio of documents and artifacts, produced in 1940, to the character of ondine, whose part had been sung by Cerrito in the ballet of the same name. He went on to create ‘bouquets of homage’ using collages, boxes and magazine covers which he dedicated to major romantic ballerinas such as Marie taglioni, for whom he constructed taglioni’s Jewel Casket. this box, a jewelry box containing glass cubes, illustrated a tale according to which taglioni, whose carriage had been stopped by bandits, performed a dance on an animal pelt that had been placed on the snowy ground. Although his attention was mainly focused on renowned dancers of romantic ballet, Cornell also dedicated some of his works to contemporary dancers such as tamara toumanove and renée ‘Zizi’ Jeanmaire, a dancer he had once met.

loaninG museums

• Germany, Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe• United States, Charlottesville (Virginia), The Fralin Museum of Art at the University 

of Virginia• United States, East Lansing, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum• United States, Hartford (Connecticut), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art• United States, Houston, The Menil Collection• United States, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art• United States, New York, Museum of Modern Art• United States, Palm Beach, Norton Museum• United States, San Antonio, McNay Art Museum• United States, Washington, Hirshhorn Museum• France, Grenoble, Museum of Grenoble• France, Lyon, Contemporary Art Museum• France, Marseille, Cantini Museum• France, Nantes, Fine Arts Museum• France, Nice, Modern and Contemporary Art Museum• France, Paris, Museum of Modern Art of Paris• France, Paris, National Museum of Modern Art - Centre Georges Pompidou• France, Rennes, Fine Arts Museum• France, Rouen, Fine Arts Museum• France, Strasbourg, Modern and Contemporary Art Museum• Italy, Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna• Lichtenstein, Vaduz, Kunstmuseum• United Kingdom, Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland• United Kingdom, London, Penrose Foundation• United Kingdom, London, Tate Modern

ConFerenCe

thursday september 26th at 6pm in ParisWith sylvie ramond, Director and Curator of the Lyon Museum of fine Arts and Patrick mauriés, writer, editor, literary critic and collector.

Venue: terra Foundation for american art europe29 rue des Pyramides75001 Paris, francet: +33 (0)1 43 20 82 65www.terraamericanart.org/europe

founded in 1978, the terra foundation for American Art is dedicated to fostering exploration, understanding, and enjoyment of the visual arts of the united states for national

and international audiences. recognizing the importance of experiencing original works of art, the foundation provides opportunities for interaction and study, beginning with the presentation and growth of its own art collection in Chicago. to further cross-cultural dialogue on American art, the foundation supports and collaborates on innovative exhibitions, research, and educational programs.

Grant ProGramthe grant program offers support for American art exhibitions and academic programs worldwide. in addition, it supports public and school programs in Chicago. over recent years, the foundation has provided approximately $45 million for some 450 exhibitions and scholarly programs in over thirty countries, including france, Germany, spain, the united Kingdom, russia, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, China, and Japan.

art ColleCtionthe terra foundation’s collection of American art comprises more than 700 paintings, works on paper, and sculptures dating from the late eighteenth century through 1945 by such artists as John singleton Copley, James Mcneill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Marsden Hartley, and edward Hopper. the foundation works to ensure its collection is accessible: it lends artworks to exhibitions worldwide; creates focused shows of its collection for public exhibition; and maintains a comprehensive database of the collection on its website.

PartnershiPsthe foundation collaborates with institutions worldwide to create new and exciting ways to connect people with American art. for example, long-term partnerships with the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the national Gallery in London have introduced American art to european audiences, as well as placed works of historical art from the united states in dialogue with two pre-eminent collections. ongoing collabo-rations with these institutions will enable presentations of American art over the next several years. Additionally, a partnership with the solomon r. Guggenheim foundation rendered the first survey of historical American art to travel to Beijing, shanghai, Moscow, and Bilbao. Lastly, a recent collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of fine Arts Houston, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art introduced historical American art to south Korea.

Paris aCademiC Center & researCh librarYin 2009 the terra foundation opened its Paris Center, a resource that supports the foundation’s grant programs in europe, fosters international connections, and provides access to resources on American art. the Paris Center offers monthly programs on current topics on the art and visual culture of the united states. it also houses the only research library in europe devoted exclusively to historical American art, with approximately 9,000 titles covering subjects and artists up to 1980.

for further information on these and other terra foundation activities and opportunities for support, please visit terraamericanart.org or contact: francesca rose in Paris (rose@terraamericanart.eu or +33 1 43 20 32 06) or Charles Mutscheller in Chicago (mutscheller@terraamericanart.org or +1 312 654 2259)

tiCket PriCeexhibition: 9€ / 6€ / freeexhibition + museum’s collection: 12€ / 7€ / 6€ / freeCommented visit: entrance ticket + 3€ / free

oPeninG hoursDaily except tuesdays and holidays, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Visuals available for the press thank you to contact us to get access to our press codes.

Press ContaCtsylvaine Manuel de Condinguy Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon / 20, place des terreaux / 69001 Lyon. sylvaine.manuel@mairie-lyon.frt: +33 (0)4 72 10 41 15

museum oF Fine arts - lYon20 place des terreaux / 69001 Lyont: +33 (0)4 72 10 17 40www.mba-lyon.fr

Créditsfig. 1 : © ADAGP, Paris, 2013 © Centre Pompidou, MnAM-CCi, Dist. rMn-Grand Palais / Jacques fig 2 : © ADAGP, Paris, 2013 / the Joseph and robert Cornell Memorial foundation - Photo © 2013 Hirshhorn Museum and sculpture Garden Photography by Cathy Carverfig. 3, 4 : © ADAGP, Paris, 2013 / the Joseph and robert Cornell Memorial foundation © Camerarts, new yorkfig. 5 : © ADAGP, Paris, 2013 / the Joseph and robert Cornell Memorial foundation / Photo © Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art / Art resource, ny/ scala, florencefig. 6 : © ADAGP, Paris, 2013 / the Joseph and robert Cornell Memorial foundation © Photo Musées de strasbourgfig. 7 : © ADAGP, Paris, 2013 / the Joseph and robert Cornell Memorial foundation / Photo © the Museum of Modern Artfig. 8 : © salvador Dali, Gala-salvador Dali foundation / ADAGP, Paris, 2013 - Photo © tate, London 2013fig. 9 : © ADAGP, Paris, 2013 / succession Marcel Duchamp © Photo Musées de strasbourg, A. Plissonfig. 10 : © Lee Miller Archives, england 2013. All rights reserved © ADAGP, Paris, 2013 - the Joseph and robert Cornell Memorial foundation - Photo © Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art / Art resource, ny/ scala, florence

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musée des beaux-arts de lYon20 place des terreaux / 69001 Lyontél. : +33 (0)4 72 10 17 40www.mba-lyon.fr