there's an incredible Elegant Beauty in Joseph Cornell's work it's very gutsy intelligent and complex you sometimes wonder if you're looking at a miniature theater who are the principal characters who's the auxiliary cast how is the setting going to change there were stories there were narratives there were Mysteries to be unraveled it's a very interactive kind of art experience this is a beautiful collection of boxes and intimate objects defined by an interest in movement music and a temporality that was very much part of Cornell's work and was very important to the bergmans as collectors Ed and Lindy Bergman were very proud and loyal citizens of the cultural community in Chicago and they were part of a generation of collectors that really wanted to do something different the bergmans were extremely devoted to the work of Joseph Cornell and their interest in his work was comprehensive and highly detailed in every level Ed and Lindy had a very large collection at a high level of excellence and a beautiful apartment on Lakeshore Drive you could walk through and feel like you were going to discover something at every turn one of the boxes is called petite Muse in some respects it's actually a little unusual in Cornell's work simply because it's not the typical vertical or horizontal glass Paine box that he constructed it's an actual found box cornels arranged all of these glasses and then the glasses all have little items in them I like that title of petite Muse in part because Cornell really does come from this whole tradition of cabinet of Cur Curiosities which was the origin of museums in Europe aside from him inviting us to think about what a museum can be it's also asking us to think about what we value in our daily life and and in culture the kakatu box with watches is part of a series that he called the Avary that he started showing in New York in 1949 he loved Birds he recalled coming across a window in a pet store that was just filled with parrots and cockus that image really stayed with him he also looked at birds as examples of how we navigate in the world it becomes a metaphor for ourselves and because of those clock faces the passing of time the soap bubble set that the bergman's owned is one of several types of soap bubble sets that Cornell made the pipe is a type of pipe that was very popular in Holland Cornell was of Dutch ancestry so there's some autobiographical element you begin to get the sense maybe that a scientist has somehow managed to create a little world for himself almost as if it's a stage for experimentation the marbles maybe there soap bubbles that have been captured or a miniature World in each class when you look at a box like the Beehive thimble Forest you know that something is supposed to happen between you and the box it's lined with multiple panes of mirror and on these needles are perched all these Thimbles it becomes a statement about Infinity when you look through the aperture that's in the exterior Rim peering through and looking at this Forest of Thimbles a lesser known aspect of Cornell's work is his interest in the Romantic ballet Cornell's Fascination began when he started attending the ballet in the early 20s like his boxes the ballet was a small world into itself he loved the mystery of ballet and its symbolism and Beauty there are several boxes that refer to the many ballerinas such as Fanny serito carlat grei rosu Mori and of course the great group of works from Tamra tumanova Cornell was introduced to tumanova who was a principal dancer for George Balan she was an extraordinary beauty and captivated Cornell's imagination and heart immediately their exchange and their relationship was so rich that she would often send him feathers and Beads and Tool from her costumes which he would then incorporate into boxes it was through Cornell's sisters that the bergmans were introduced to tumova one of the works that the bergmans did acquire was the Tamra tumova scrapbook it's a demonstration of Cornell's friendship with Tamar tumanova the box that's called Flemish princess is part of a series that uses that image of the little girl with the cap on her head Cornell was very interested in film if you look at each of the images they're not quite the same it may be liberating to think about each of those compartments like a still in a film Cornell definitely had an impact on artists like Robert renberg and Jasper John's and Andy warhole his example as an experimentor was very important to those artists who wanted to find different ways of creating art as of the 1950s that's part of the long shadow of Joseph Cornell