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Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
BOOKJoseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Kirsten Hoving
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23752
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy provides an in-depth look at one artist’s intense fascination with the science of astronomy. Joseph Cornell (1903–1972) has often been viewed as a recluse, isolated in his home on Utopia Parkway, lost in the fairy tales and charming objects of his collages and assemblage boxes. Less commonly known has been Cornell’s vested and serious interest in the history of astronomy and the cutting-edge discoveries made during his own lifetime. An avid reader, he amassed a library of books and articles about science and astronomy, and his reflections about these subjects had a direct impact on his art.

This book explores why astronomy captivated Cornell, and considers hundreds of his works—found-footage films, three-dimensional space-object boxes, enigmatic collages, and cosmic ephemera—that contain references to astronomical phenomena. Kirsten Hoving considers Cornell’s enormous collection of astronomy materials, ranging from eighteenth-century books to recent works; newspaper and magazine articles that Cornell clipped and sorted; and diary entries of his observations while stargazing in his backyard. She examines how Cornell explored many dimensions of astronomy through his identities as a Christian Scientist and surrealist artist.

Unfolding Cornell’s work with depth and breadth, Joseph Cornell and Astronomy offers a convincing and original appreciation of this intriguing American artist.

*This eBook is available exclusively on the A&AePortal.*
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Print publication date December 2008 (in print)
Print ISBN 9780691134987
EISBN 9780300275605
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Illustrations 148
Print Status in print
Publisher (in print)
WorldCat
Google Books

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List of illustrations

  • Miscellaneous books, clippings, and printed materials
  • Miscellaneous books, clippings, and printed materials
  • Constellation chart
  • Cover design for Town and Country
  • Trimmed photostat reproductions of Hevelius constellation figures of Andromeda and Auriga
  • Enigmas
  • Cassiopeia diary notation
  • La Cassiopée de l’atlas de Bayer
  • Le Bouvier de l’atlas de Bayer
  • Constellations zodiacales.—Le Taureau.—Les Gémeaux
  • Constellations zodiacales.—Les Poissons.—Le Bélier
  • Untitled
  • Galilée présentant la première lunette astronomique au doge de Venise
  • Apparition subite de l’étoile nouvelle de 1572, observé par Tycho Brahe
  • Un jeune homme de 23 ans, Newton, rêvait un soir
  • William Herschel découvrant la planète Uranus
  • Misfortunes of the Immortals
  • Story without a Name—for Max Ernst
  • Electricity—The World (Electricité—Le Monde)
  • The Electrification of the Country
  • Maud Granger as Astronomy
  • Soap Bubble Set
  • Soap Bubble Set
  • Installation view of Joseph Cornell's Elements of Natural Philosophy
  • Center of gravity clippings, Natural Philosophy, source material file
  • Ombre des anneaux de Saturne sur la planète
  • Film still from The Eclipse (The Courtship of the Sun and Moon)
  • Woodcut engravings of the moon after drawings by Galileo
  • Telescopes—Modern and Ancient and Transparency of Moon in Gibbous Phase
  • Specific Gravity Beads
  • Changing Conceptions of the Universe: A Riddle Still
  • Cabinet of Natural History (Object)
  • Imperious Jewelry of the Universe (Lunar Baedecker): Portrait of Mina Loy (Daguerreotype Object)
  • Untitled
  • Edwin Hubble at the 48" Schmidt Telescope, Mount Palomar Observatory
  • Object (Soap Bubble Set)
  • Theater of Time and Space, New York World's Fair
  • Announcement for Objects by Joseph Cornell, Copley Galleries, Beverly Hills, CA
  • Soap Bubble Set
  • Eclipse sequence from Rose Hobart
  • Science Again Turns to the Sun
  • Opening frame, Rose Hobart
  • Rose Hobart and George Renavent in East of Borneo
  • Untitled book object (Histoire des Temps Modernes)
  • They're Ready to Shoot the Sun's Eclipse
  • Film stills from The Children's Party
  • Circular into Rectilinear Motion
  • Homage to Tamara Toumanova
  • Untitled illustration to Charles Henri Ford, Ballet for Tamara Toumanova
  • L'Etoile du soir
  • Film still from The Eclipse (The Courtship of the Sun and Moon)
  • Hedy Lamarr as a spiral nebula, film still from You Stepped Out of a Dream, in Ziegfeld Girl
  • Hedy Lamarr paper dolls for Ziegfeld Girl, 1941; negative photostat portrait of Hedy Lamarr; collage with photograph and railroad ticket
  • The Great Whirl of Stars in the Andromeda Nebula, a Million Light Years Away
  • Miss Expanding Universe
  • Spectra of the Stars and Nebulae
  • Untitled (Celestial Fantasy with Tamara Toumanova)
  • Untitled (for Tamara Toumanova)
  • The Crystal Cage [portrait of Berenice]
  • The Crystal Cage [portrait of Berenice]
  • Astronomie des Dames
  • Albert Einstein, Edwin P. Hubble, Walther Mayer, Walter S. Adams, Arthur S. King, and William W. Campbell on the footbridge leading to the 100" telescope at Mount Wilson
  • Tycho Brahe's Observatory of Uraniborg, Island of Hven
  • Untitled (La Cassiopée)
  • Coney Island by Night, folding postcard set
  • Le Bouvier, la Couronne boréale, les Chiens de Chasse, la Chevelure de Bérénice
  • Americana Fantastica
  • Source material for View cover and corresponding constellations
  • The Crystal Cage
  • Cassiopeia source material box
  • The Crystal Cage [portrait of Berenice]
  • Detail of Flash Gordon montage housed in The Crystal Cage [portrait of Berenice]
  • Prints and photographs mounted on construction paper, from The Celestial Theater
  • Central Park Carrousel, in Memorium
  • 200" mirror for the Hale Telescope, Mount Palomar Observatory
  • Observatory Colomba Carrousel
  • The Hale Telescope, Mount Palomar
  • Observatory Corona Borealis Casement
  • The 200-inch Hale and (Right) Slice of a Spiral Nebula
  • Galaxy
  • Announcements for Night Voyage exhibition, Egan Gallery, 1953 and Winter Night Skies by Joseph Cornell, Stable Gallery, 1955. Christmas card designs for the Museum of Modern Art: Virgo, 1945; Bird and Stars, 1954; Monocerous, 1957
  • Carrousel
  • Diary entry
  • Les Constellations Voisines du Pôle
  • Les Constellations Voisines du pôle
  • Printed materials explaining zodiacal light
  • Eclipse to Test Einstein Theory
  • Andromeda: Grand Hôtel de l’Observatoire
  • L'Andromède de l'atlas d'Hévélius
  • Jackie Andromeda notation and Jackie Lane
  • Diary notation
  • Changing Concepts of the Universe
  • Hôtel du Nord
  • Star Types, Lunar Eclipse, and Sunlight and Rainbows
  • Small boxes with astronomical charts and objects
  • Untitled (Window Façade)
  • Bible House, on Astor Place (far right)
  • Untitled (Soap Bubble Set: Système de Copernic)
  • Untitled (Système de Descartes)
  • Système de Descartes
  • Untitled
  • Untitled [Yellow Sand Tray, Sun and Planet Images]
  • Untitled [Blue Sand Box with Starfish]
  • Archimedes, frontispiece
  • Photograph of subatomic particles at Brookhaven National Laboratory
  • Untitled [Blue Sand Box]
  • Meson Star
  • The Birth of the Nuclear Atom
  • Atomic Theory is Based upon Indirect Evidence
  • Cassiopeia #1, recto
  • Cassiopeia #1, verso
  • Texas and Northern Mexico May Look Something Like This to the Sputnik
  • Enough Here to Challenge a Hundred da Vincis!
  • Untitled (Soap Bubble Set)
  • Lively as a Walk on the Moon
  • Untitled (Phases de la lune)
  • Suzy's Room (In Mem. Judy Tyler)
  • Untitled (Solar Set)
  • Celestial Navigation
  • Radar Astronomy
  • Soap Bubble Variant, recto
  • Soap Bubble Variant, verso
  • Source materials and notes from Marilyn Monroe file
  • Untitled (Custodian II, Silent Dedication to MM)
  • How to Make a Rainbow (for Jeanne Eagels)
  • Weather Satellites
  • Sixty-foot Telescope of Harvard University
  • Untitled
  • Triangles and the Distance to the Moon and Surface and Volume in Nature
  • Untitled (Triangles and Distance to the Moon)
  • Skyway
  • Now Voyager II
  • Mars
  • Penny Arcade series, re Autumnal
  • Rapport de Contreras (Circe)
  • Untitled (nudes from Triptych with the Last Judgement by Hans Memling)
  • Envelope of Jackie Lane Cinema
  • A Rainbow is a Spectrum
  • Untitled [Ship with Nude]
  • L'Andromède de l'atlas d'Bayer
  • Untitled nude, unidentified magazine source
  • The Model
  • Desargues's Theorem
  • Untitled
  • Untitled
  • Diary entry
  • Les Constellations Voisines du Pole, recto
  • Les Constellations Voisines du Pole, verso
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Contents
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Contents
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23753
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List of Illustrations
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Illustrations
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23754
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Preface and Acknowledgments
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
A VIVID CHILDHOOD MEMORY FROM THE EARLY 1960s: I stand with my father in our front yard on a warm summer night as we watch the communications satellite Echo blink its way across the sky...
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23755
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Notes to the Reader
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
AAA
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23816
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Chapter I. Cross-Indexing the Cosmos
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
~THE AMERICAN ARTIST JOSEPH CORNELL (1903–72) devoted his career to constructing collages and assemblage boxes that juxtapose pictures and objects in playful and poetic ways. He created boxes with butterflies and birds, ballerinas and actresses, children from Renaissance paintings and...
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.1-26
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23756
Chapter subject tags:Cornell, JosephChristian ScienceSurrealism--United StatesCollage, American--20th centuryAssemblage (Art)--United States--20th centuryFound objects (Art)

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Chapter II. The Celestial Science of Soap
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
AFTER SEVERAL YEARS OF EXHIBITING small collages and object sculptures at the Julien Levy Gallery Cornell was invited to participate in Alfred H. Barr, Jr.’s, groundbreaking exhibition, Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, which opened at the Museum of Modern Art in December 1936...
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.27-56
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23757
Chapter subject tags:Assemblage (Art)--United States--20th centuryCornell, JosephSurrealism--United StatesAstronomy in artGalileo, 1564-1642Newton, Isaac, 1837-1884Art and science--United States--20th century

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Chapter III. Movie Stars
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
~FOR HIS 1936 Soap Bubble Set, Cornell drew on his interest in science to produce a work with Surrealist overtones for a major exhibition of avant-garde art. The consideration of science—past and present—that lay behind the items in his Elements of Natural Philosophy led to many more science-based works, culminating in a series of box...
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.57-88
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23758
Chapter subject tags:Cornell, JosephArt and science--United States--20th centurySurrealism--United StatesExperimental film--20th centuryAstronomy in art

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Chapter IV. Astronomia Fantastica
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
~THE JANUARY 1943 “AMERICANA FANTASTICA” issue of View magazine featured a wraparound cover designed by Cornell, along with a visual essay entitled The Crystal Cage [portrait of Berenice]. The cover and essay offer another glimpse into the part astronomy played in his creative process, now as a framework for a complex...
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.89-119
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23759
Chapter subject tags:Cornell, JosephSurrealism--United StatesAstronomy in artArt and science--United States--20th centuryCollage, American--20th centuryConstellations in art

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Chapter V. Observatories
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
~DURING THE 1940S CORNELL’S ART moved in several directions simultaneously. He continued to explore the physical universe in a series of soap bubble sets and other works devoted to natural history. At the same time, he remained fascinated by American popular culture and based boxes and collages on themes derived from the world of Hollywood. He also...
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.120-157
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23760
Chapter subject tags:Cornell, JosephConstellations in artChristian ScienceAssemblage (Art)--United States--20th centuryArt and science--United States--20th centuryAstronomy in art

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Chapter VI. The Science of the Stars
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
~DURING THE 1930S COSMOLOGICAL QUESTIONS about the size and shape, creation, and age of the universe preoccupied scientists and filtered down to the general public. The expanding “soap bubble” universe, the implications of Einstein’s theories...
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.158-201
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23761
Chapter subject tags:Cornell, JosephAstronomy in artArt and science--United States--20th centuryAssemblage (Art)--United States--20th centuryCollage, American--20th centuryConstellations in art

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Chapter VII. The Twilight Zone
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
~AS CORNELL’S REPUTATION GREW, important exhibitions featured his art. Displaying his work along with Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters, Cornell was given an individual room in the Art of Assemblage exhibition organized by William Seitz at the Museum of Modern Art in 1961.Together with...
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.202-241
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23762
Chapter subject tags:Cornell, JosephCollage, American--20th centuryConstellations in artArt and science--United States--20th centuryFound objects (Art)Astronomy in artMathematics in artSpace exploration in art

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Selected Bibliography
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Selected Bibliography
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23763
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Index
Kirsten Hoving
Description: Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
Index
Author
Kirsten Hoving
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Copyright© 2009 by Princeton University Press
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23764
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Joseph Cornell and Astronomy: A Case for the Stars
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