Untitled (Bebe Marie) 1940

This "Untitled (Bebe Marie)" by Joseph Cornell is like a world captured in a box, using found objects to construct a different way of seeing. The twigs create a kind of screen, obscuring and revealing the doll fragment. It reminds me of the way we layer meaning in our own work. Look at the doll’s face and its unsettling, frozen gaze. Cornell seems to use the doll to explore themes of childhood, memory, and fragility. The twig-like branches almost become a metaphor for time. Cornell’s boxes feel like a conversation with artists like Kurt Schwitters, who also used found materials to make art, elevating the everyday into something precious. Art doesn’t have to have fixed meanings, it can be poetic, and embrace uncertainty.