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

Focusing on Joseph Cornell's evocative and profound references to children and their stories, this title studies the relationship between the artist's work on childhood and his search for a transfigured concept of time. It 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.