Wednesday, March 30, 2011

There Never Was a Bird


There never Was A Bird

There never was a bird—in that cage.
Whitewashed for company who never visit.
Never muss the unsoiled perch.
Never give a feather to the edge of the snipped wire.
Never enjoy the hole and its ocean view.

It is what it can be. It is an object
With a title. It is a prince among princes.
It is a cenotaph for soaring souls that fear delight.
It is a third image of the blue peninsula.
It is ekphrasis redux. It is connected to this by this.
It is for this that I am.

Her words were heavenly enough to name that cage.

If I could—I would pin together the feathery paper scraps
Left behind—to build the poem named Object, Untitled.

 
From the book Chatter In The Canopy, Poems by Jeff Roberts; Drawings by Dick Roberts and Doug Heinlein, © 2008 Jeff Roberts, Booksurge, Charleston SC, ISBN-10: 1439214816;  ISBN-13: 978-1439214817;  LCCN: 2008909362. Available from Etsy.com & amazon.com

Homage to Joseph Cornell - Peter Blake


Artist: Sir Peter Blake (b. 1932-)
Title: Homage to Joseph Cornell
Year: 1996
Medium: Silkscreen on wove paper
Published by The Big Art Issue
Dimensions: 24.75 x 20 inches
Edition: 108/250
Signed (LR) and numbered (LL) in pencil

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Cornell and Dickenson

Link to a sweet excerpt from Charles Simic's Dime Store Alchemy on Poetry and Photography blog:
http://junehymas.blogspot.com/2010/11/american-autumn.html

Gopnick on Joseph Cornell


The best, I think, "elevator pitch" for Joseph Cornell is from Adam Gopnick in an article in the New Yorker, 2/17/03:

He is an artist of longings, but his longings are for things known and seen and hard to keep. He didn't long to go to France; he longed to build memorials to the feeling of wanting to go to France while riding the Third Avenue El. He preferred the ticket to the trip, the postcard to the place, the fragment to the whole. Cornell's boxes look like dreams to us, but the mind that made them was always wide awake.
 
Photo: Lee Miller

Joseph Cornell LinkedIn Group

Many Social media consultants advise LinkedIn members to add "groups" to their profile. Sometimes it's a challenge to find a group you'd like to be a member of and display on your LinkedIn page, which may be viewed by prospective employers or recruiters.

Utopia Parkway - Fans of Joseph Cornell is now a LinkedIn Group managed by me.

The group's mission is the same as this blog: to connect fans of the American collage and assemblage artist Joseph Cornell and provide a network to share and appreciate his contributions to the world of art.

Join, Share, Contribute, Enjoy!

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3810491

Exhibition Poster: Joseph Cornell Constructions & Collages, Berggruen Gallery, May 12, 1976


Exhibition Poster

Joseph Cornell
Constructions & Collages

John Berggruen Gallery
In cooperation with Castelli, Feigen, and Corcoran
228 Grant Ave, SF, CA
May 12 - June 12, 1976

Size: 17 x 22 inches

Edition Size: unknown

(So far, I've only run into two copies of this. jr)

Homage to Joseph Cornell #2 - William Thomson


Artist: William Thomson
Title: Study for Homage to Joseph Cornell #2
Date: 2011
Medium: Mixed. casein tempera, collage on paper
Size: 8 x 10 inches
Edition: 1/1 (original)
Signed: Thomson LR


Bio and Exhibition Notes:
www.exeter.edu/arts/8160_11539.aspx

Homage to Joseph Cornell #2 - Judi Culbertson



Artist: Judi Culbertson
Title: Homage to Joseph Cornell #2
Year: 2007
Medium: Mixed, of course
Edition Size: 1/1
Size: Approx. 1.5 x 2.5 inches

Judi Culbertson is the author of Scaling Down: Living Large in a Smaller Space, St. Martins Press, 2005, ISBN-13:9781594860935. She has a new mystery, A NOVEL DEATH, being published in June by Avalon Books.

Judi plans to make some one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces based Joseph Cornell's work.

Homage to Joseph Cornell #1 - Judi Culbertson


Artist: Judi Culbertson
Title: Homage to Joseph Cornell #1
Year: 2007
Medium: Mixed, of course
Edition Size: 1/1
Size: Approx. 1.5 x 2.5 inches
Judi Culbertson is the author of Scaling Down: Living Large in a Smaller Space, St. Martins Press, 2005, ISBN-13:9781594860935.She has a new mystery, A NOVEL DEATH, being published in June by Avalon Books.

Judi plans to make some one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces based Joseph Cornell's work.

Joseph Cornell Box Comes to Life

Today I discovered this remarkable music video for Nothing Else Will Do by J. Scott Bergman, conceived and directed by Geoff Mark. The setting is inside a Cornell box, which comes alive with the music. Love it.

http://www.directorgeoff.com/newd.html

Homage to Joseph Cornell - Cesar Trasobares




Artist: César Trasobares
Title: Untitled (Homage to Joseph Cornell)
Date: 1992
Medium: Cedar box, wire, tinted gesso, paper, xerography, Christmas ornament, plastic cube, feathers, coral rock, book
Published by Grassfield Press, Miami Beach, Florida
Edition Size: 30
Signed by Trasobares on verso of box LR

Background:
"In 1992 Grassfield Press commissioned César Trasobares to create an homage to Joseph Cornell using a cedar box and a copy of the book, Joseph Cornell: Gifts of Desire, by Dickran Tashjian.

Trasobares covered the cedar box with a wire lid that opens like a gate to the nostalgic garden of Cornell's collage, For Josephine, that is printed on the cover of the book. When the book is removed, the open gate reveals Cornell in his garden in Flushing, New York. In a direct reference to Cornell's assemblages, Trasobares selected an array of evocative objects for display in the box's small compartments.
Trasobares adds a new dimension to the book's central theme of gift-giving by montaging excerpts from the IRS tax rulings regulating gifts of art work. Such social commentary is a common feature of Trasobares' work. He also pays tribute to Cornell as an "Enchanted Wanderer" by scattering airline schedules throughout the lid's montage.

Trasobares (b. 1949, Cuba) lives and works in Miami, Florida. A graduate of Florida Atlantic University, Trasobares has exhibited extensively since 1970, and was included in 'Cuba U.S.A.,' a traveling exhibition originated at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, in 1991. He is a recipient of artist fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and Cintas Foundation.

The cedar box was hand-crafted by Luis Baltar, Miami, Florida. Hans Namuth's photograph of Joseph Cornell (1969) was reproduced by permission."

Source:
http://www.cesartrasobares.com/w%20history%20chrono%20files/cornel%201992.html

Homage to Joseph Cornell - William Thomson


Artist: William Thomson
Title: Study for Homage to Joseph Cornell
Date: 2011
Medium: Mixed. Watercolor, egg tempera, collage on paper
Size: 8 x 10 inches
Edition: 1/1 (original)
Signed: Thomson LR

Bio and Exhibition Notes:
www.exeter.edu/arts/8160_11539.aspx