I was fortunate enough to see the new wing at the Art Institute of Chicago this past weekend. It became a quest to see where they put the Joseph Cornell boxes ...As I wound around the galleries looking at some familiar works and some new works, I found two groupings of his works...there is something simple and mystical about his work..the way the elements are put together and arranged...the basic, monochromatic color palette with the explosion of color in the parrot...the bird is the lead character in this opera...different visual components contained in the squares and rectangles that break the picture plane...
Paper elements on the far wall, like posters on the street...the world is aged and subject to time...the circular form of the birds eye, yellow ball and the center of the spring tie the composition together and move the viewer through the piece...each supporting character has it's own place and room in Cornell's boxes...and how could you not love the box form?!?! I guess I am bias on this point...Is the bird caged? And what could these other forms be alluding too? Toys to occupy the bird while in captivity? Found objects that bird collected, to make a home? Could this be a glimpse into the natural habitat? The bird forced to select from the scraps in an urban environment...creating a modern living structure, not out of choice but because of scarcity...
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