Untitled (Soap Bubble Set)

Description

Soap bubble sets were among Cornell’s earliest imaginary constructions, going back to his contribution to the 1936–37 exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. This box forms an interesting contrast with the other Soap Bubble Set in the Bergman collection (see Soap Bubble Set). Here the bold form of the moon fills the back panel, its pitted surface finding an echo in the cork ball suspended on the parallel rods. Like the earlier box, this one includes a drinking glass. A clay pipe lying on the floor of the box forges the link between the “bubbles” and the planets. Cornell seems to wish to counteract, however, the obviously poetic, dreamlike connotations of this box by emphasizing the scientific interest of the moon through its precisely “mapped” surface and the tables with astronomical data pasted in at the left and right.

Provenance

Sold by the artist to Lindy and Edwin Bergman, Chicago, October 1959; given to the Art Institute, 1982.

Untitled (Soap Bubble Set)

Joseph Cornell

c. 1957

Accession Number

99769

Medium

Box construction

Dimensions

9 1/8 × 14 1/2 × 3 3/4 in.; 2 1/4 × 3/8 in. rubber "bumper" bottom center on back

Classification

sculpture

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Lindy and Edwin Bergman Joseph Cornell Collection