Joseph Cornell

At the end of last term Roma did a lecture on the new module 'identities' and one particular artist that was mentioned was Joseph Cornell. He was an artist that really reflected what our module would be about so I thought I would do a bit of research in him now to get a brief idea on what his work is about and, also how it could inspire me.


Now, looking at this piece of work I relised that it isn't like the usual art work that I like to analyse because on first impressions it looks to me as if Joseph Cornell just stuck some objects in a box however, doing the project that we are doing this is a very good example.

To me it looks as though Cornell has thought about the layout of the bow thoroughly. I like the choice of colours, Cornell has kept to very neutral colours except for a few bold and eye-catching colours that catches the users eyes straight away. When I first looked at the image the bird in the center of the box was the first thing that I noticed and then moving around to the yellow ball.
There is also a slight sense of depth to the box with the help of shadows, which is what I need to do.


This is another piece by Joseph Cornell. I chose this piece because it is alot less compact and more simple then the other piece yet still has the same effect. Like the other piece Cornell has kept to neutral look but having a bold colour (blue) the difference between the first image shown and to this piece is that the bold colour is set in the background giving the image a source of depth, rather then the shadowing.

Looking at these pieces more I am starting to like them more but the only thing that I cannot see in both image is emotion/feeling. When I look at the two pieces I don't see any impression or theme that gives each piece of artwork a story. This is something that I would like to try and achieve with my pieces. When people view my work I want them to know what I am like and understand it.