Joseph Cornell

Joseph Cornell was an American artist, largely self-taught, who lived almost all his life in a small house in Queens, New York, caring for his mother and his disabled brother. He made shadow boxes, small glass-fronted boxes filled with found objects, prints, maps, marbles and bird images, dedicated to ballerinas, film stars and astronomy, among them the Medici Slot Machine and Soap Bubble Set. He was admired by the Surrealists but never joined them. He also made collage films, including Rose Hobart.