EXHIBITION OF OBJECTS by Joseph Cornell Opening December 6th.
New York: Julien Levy Gallery, 1939. Single sheet, folded as issued. Reproducing a drawing by Cornell on one side (titled "Bilboquet") and text of verso. Printed blue on white. Mild wear. Very good or better overall. Item #404860
Scarce exhibition announcement for Joseph Cornell's second show, held seven years after his first, also at the Julien Levy Gallery. Levy's 57th Street location was in many ways ground zero for Surrealism, Dada, and experimental film in the States and his gallery mounted important exhibitions by Duchamp, Ernst, Magritte, Kahlo, as well as Cornell, throughout the 1930s and 40s. Includes a text by the artist's friend Parker Tyler, who according to Cornell biographer Deborah Solomon likely "gave Cornell the impetus to exhibit his work again after such a long hiatus. Their friendship appears to have enabled Cornell to muster renewed confidence in his art" (UTOPIA PARKWAY p. 102). And the exhibit itself was groundbreaking, arranged so that visitors entered "a small sitting room designed by the artist to resemble a walk-in fairy tale. The lights were turned down, and thimbles, dolls, and bits of broken glass could be found both in and out of shadow boxes. In other words, the room itself was a work of art — a box in its own right — and remains an unsung forerunner of installation art" (ibid, 105). No copies located in OCLC, and we do not find an example among Cornell's papers at the Smithsonian — though there does appear to be one among Levy's papers at U. Penn. Rare ephemera from an early and important event in Cornell's career. [Daniel A. Starr #229 in JOSEPH CORNELL, McShine, Kynaston (editor, MoMA 1990)].
Price: $1,500.00