A Joseph Cornell Album

by Dore Ashton

With affection and critical respect, a celebrated art historian has gathered an unprecedented wealth of material about the shy but immensely influential artist who lived on incongruously named Utopia Parkway in Queens, New York.

Genres: Art

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Dore Ashton (1928, – January 30, 2017) was a writer, professor and critic of modern and contemporary art. She was the author or editor of more than thirty books on art.

Reviews

[Evan]

The concept of this book is great: take some images of the artist's work, surround them with selections from works the artist found important, homages from others, quick bios by friends, and a little analysis -- this'd give you something of a portrait, right?

Not so. We learn that Cornell had a fascination with the Victorian and Romantic nostalgia (which is pretty clear when you look at his stuff), but the passages from his favorite works selected don't really illuminate his interest in these feelings. Maybe a word from Cornell himself may have helped?