Acquisition Information
Arrangement
Biographical / Historical Note
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Processing History
Scope and Content of Collection
Digitized Material
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Joseph Cornell letters to Susanna De Maria Wilson and other papers
Creator:
Cornell, Joseph
Identifier/Call Number: 2014.M.30
Physical Description:
2.17 Linear Feet
(3 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1963-1994, undated
Abstract: Collection of thirty-three unpublished letters from Joseph Cornell to Susanna De Maria Wilson, one of his assistants and wife
of the minimalist sculptor Walter De Maria. The letters feature poetic and philosophical musings on various topics as well
as practical information about the artist's work and document aspects of Cornell's relationship with De Maria Wilson. Besides
the textual content, the aestethic composition of the letters, comprising multiple envelopes frequently contained within each
other, collaged elements and the inclusion of objects, produces a layered reading and viewing experience. The letters are
as much a collection of collage work and mail art as they are archival documents.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material: Collection material is in English.
Acquisition Information
Acquired in 2014.
Arrangement
Arranged in two series: Series I. Joseph Cornell letters to Susanna De Maria Wilson, 1963-1968, undated; Series II. Other
papers, 1963-1994, undated.
Biographical / Historical Note
The American artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) was a pioneer and celebrated pratcitioner of collage and assemblage art, and
experimental filmmaker. He was born in Nyack, N.Y. in 1903, the eldest of four children. Following his father's death in 1917
he moved with his family to Queens, New York, and then attended the Phillips Academy in Andover in Massachusetts, but without
earning a diploma. Except for the years spent in Andover, Cornell lived most of his life in a small house on Utopia Parkway
in a working-class neighborhood of Flushing, Queens, along with his mother and his younger brother Robert, who suffered from
cerebral palsy. For many years he struggled to make a living and supported his family by working various jobs: salesman in
the textile industry; door-to-door appliance salesman; working at a plant nursery; as a textile designer; and as a designer
of covers and layouts for
Harper's Bazaar,
View,
Dance Index, and other magazines.
Cornell was a self-taught artist. In 1940, he decided to devote all of his time to pursuing art, and set up a workshop in
the basement of his house in Flushing. While spending most days at home, he continued to visit Manhattan to meet friends and
look for materials. His artworks began to sell, but it was not until after the 1949 solo show at the Charles Egan Gallery
that it began to sell for more significant sums.
In the 1950s and 1960s, although highly regarded as an artist, Cornell continued to lead a reclusive life. As caring for his
mother and brother claimed more of his time, he hired assistants to help him organize material, make artwork, and run errands.
One of his assistants was the wife of the American minimalist sculptor Walter De Maria, Susanna De Maria Wilson. Cornell's
brother died in 1965, followed by his mother in 1966. Cornell died in 1972, a few days after his sixty-ninth birthday.
Cornell is best known for assemblages made of objects found in bookshops and thrift stores and arranged eclectically in simple
shadow boxes, usually fronted with a glass pane. He also created flat collaged works and experimented with film. The underlying
principle of Cornell's art relies for its appeal on the use of dreamlike irrational juxtaposition, inspired by Surrealism,
and the evocation of a sense of nostalgia, inspired by 19th-century Romanticism.
Cornell was introduced to Surrealism in the early 1930s when he began frequenting the Julien Levy Gallery, which during the
1930s and 1940s was an important venue for surrealist and avant-garde art, photography and experimental film. His work was
first exhibited as part of the
Surrealisme show at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932. He made his first glass-fronted box in 1937, which was included that same year in
the
Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Cornell was also an avid collector of books, prints, postcards, and printed ephemera. In the mid-1930s he began collecting
movies and movie stills and embarked upon various film-related projects, including a trilogy of collage-films. In the mid-1950s,
he began to incorporate film-related material into his other artwork.
Cornell's art often reflects his preoccupation with women whom he encountered both in his fantasy life, such as actresses
and ballet dancers, or in real life, and various other interests, such as his captivation with birds. Besides surrealism,
his art was also influenced and informed by French symbolist writers, the philosophy of American Transcendentalism and the
Christian Science belief and practice. Throughout his life he came into contact with and befriended well known figures of
the art, dance, and literary world; including several artists of the surrealist, abstract expressionist, and pop art movements.
Access
Restricted. Contact the repository for information regarding access.
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Joseph Cornell letters to Susanna De Maria Wilson and other papers, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no.
2014.M.30.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2014m30
Processing History
Isabella Zuralski processed the collection and wrote the finding aid in 2015. The scope and content notes for the collection
and for the first series are largely drawn from curatorial notes by John Tain.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection includes letters from the American collage and assemblage artist Joseph Cornell to one of his assistants, Susanna
De Maria Wilson; a small quantity of printed ephemera and notes related to the screenings of films drawn from Cornell's personal
collection; and a few letters and notes by others.
Series I. consists of thirty-three letters by Cornell, which document diverse aspects of his working relationship with De
Maria Wilson. In terms of aesthetic composition, the pieces of mail are generally strongly visual in their orientation, and
some envelopes even seem to have had stamps affixed with care and for deliberate effect. Furthermore, Cornell adapted the
collage and assemblage technique to the sequential mode of reading in the epistolary format, so that the outer envelopes frequently
contain multiple envelopes that are then wrapped in tissue paper, stitched or clipped together. Often, these items are collaged
with stamps, seals, foil stickers, and small photographs. Several small objects are enclosed with the letters: a bird call
whistle, pressed grass, a toy plastic mirror, a piece of perforated metal, and rusty nails. Cornell's method of collage and
assemblage thus produces a layered experience of reading and viewing. As a group, the letters exist as much as a collection
of work on paper or mail art as they are archival documents.
Included with this series is the painted wood box in which De Maria Wilson stored Cornell's letters at her home. Cornell saw
the box in a Manhattan store and asked DeMaria Wilson to purchase it with money he gave her.
Series II. includes a small group of printed ephemera and notes related to the historic 1963 screenings of films drawn from
Cornell's personal collection, held at 9 Great Jones Street, the space run by Walter De Maria and Robert Whitman; and a few
letters by others written after Cornell's death.
Digitized Material
The collection was digitized in 2017. Images are available on-site only: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2014m30
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Assemblage (Art)
Collages -- United States -- 20th century
Mail art -- United States -- 20th century
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 20th century
De Maria Wilson, Susanna
Cornell, Joseph