Children's Stories and 'Child-Time' in the Works of Joseph Cornell and the Transatlantic Avant-Garde

Focusing on his evocative and profound references to children and their stories, Children''s Stories and ''"Child-Time" in the Works of Joseph Cornell and the Transatlantic Avant-Garde studies the relationship between the artist''s work on childhood and his search for a transfigured concept of time. As it changes the focus from Cornell''s boxes to his multimedia works, this study also situates Cornell and his art in the broader context of the transatlantic avant-garde of the 1930s and 40s.

Focusing on his evocative and profound references to children and their stories, Children''s Stories and ''Child-Time'' in the Works of Joseph Cornell and the Transatlantic Avant-Garde studies the relationship between the artist''s work on childhood and his search for a transfigured concept of time. This study also situates Cornell and his art in the broader context of the transatlantic avant-garde of the 1930s and 40s. Analisa Leppanen-Guerra explores the children''s stories that Cornell perceived as fundamental in order to unpack the dense network of associations in his under-studied multimedia works. Moving away from the usual focus on his box constructions, the author directs her attention to Cornell''s film and theater scenarios, ''explorations'', ''dossiers'', and book-objects. One highlight of this study is a work that may well be the first artist''s book of its kind, and has only been exhibited twice: Untitled (Journal d''Agriculture Pratique), presented as Cornell''s enigmatic tribute to Lewis Carroll''s Alice books.