Untitled

Maker Joseph Cornell (American, 1903 - 1972)

ClassificationsCOLLAGES

Daten.d.

Mediumon rough side of fiberboard panel: photograph of bust-length female nude with braid, side view, with constellation diagrams in hair, manilla paper border along right and bottom edges, stained blue over-all; verso covered with mailla paper unevenly stained dark blue

Dimensions11 15/16 x 8 15/16 in. (30.3 x 22.7 cm.)

SignedSigned in lower center of verso on text page strip stained blue in black ink: Joseph Cornell

InscribedSigned in lower center of verso on text page strip stained blue in black ink: Joseph Cornell Inscribed in lower center of verso on text page strip stained blue in black ink: photo by HASKiNS Inscribed in upper left of verso in white graphite: Joseph Cornell Inscribed in upper left of verso in black ink: Joseph Cornell

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation

Label TextThroughout his career Cornell worked in series. In the early 1960s he created several collages using photographs of nude pin-ups from magazines, colored blue, and "wearing" diagrams of constellations. He referred to these collages in his diaries as "blue nudes."

Many of Cornell's works feature images of women, and descriptions of waitresses, shopgirls, and "teeners," young women he saw on the streets of Flushing, pepper his diary entries. Cornell's interest in women seemed to be very innocent. The blue color that permeates this image, along with the constellations in the woman's braid, mitigates any overtly erotic context and makes the nude appear to be part of an ideal, heavenly realm.

Status

Not on view

Object number2005.19.6

Terms