Untitled (Paul and Virginia) 1948

Joseph Cornell made this mixed media box construction, called "Untitled (Paul and Virginia)." Its process is all about assemblage, not concealing the found nature of the object, but embracing it. The color palette here is beautifully muted, aged by time, but still singing. The blues, faded as they are, pop against the warm browns and yellows of the aged papers. Look at the placement of those tiny blue blocks, stacked on either side of that central void. They are reminiscent of some kind of futuristic tenement block. The central void is like a portal, glimpsing another world. The textures, though mostly flat, are rich and varied. Collage as a process embraces ambiguity, and Cornell is a master of embracing many different narratives and emotions. Think of Kurt Schwitters who also used found materials to make art, but here we have something that is so specifically American, an almost naive kind of surrealism.