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Untitled (Compartmented Box)
© The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation/Bildupphovsrätt 2026, Sweden/VAGA, New York, NY
Untitled (Compartmented Box)
Untitled (Compartmented Box)
Photo: Prallan Allsten/Moderna Museet

Untitled (Compartmented Box)

by Joseph Cornell
Artist (USA, 1903 - 1972)
Alternate Title
  • Utan titel (låda med fack)
Date1954-1956
MediumBox construction
Dimensions38,7 x 26 x 6,2 cm
Classification
Countries
Credit LineInköp 1980 med medel från Lovéns, Ettlers, Personnes fonder och med bidrag från Gustaf Douglas
On view
Stockholm
RoomGallery 01:4
Object NumberMOMSK 58
About the artworkA box with twenty-five small compartments under a glass top: a small display case to hang on the wall. In each compartment is a ball and an obscure portrait of a beautiful Renaissance youth. The box is the secret, a capsule, a memory. A tradition that can be traced from the laterna magica, jewellery boxes, miniature portraits; from panopticons, peep shows, puppet theatre and early photography – to the cinema, advertising light boxes and why not televisions and computers. The technology is all about containment – and presentation. Inside the box, we find a universe in miniature. An enchanted world where Joseph Cornell’s magic is white. Cornell worked with Surrealist-inspired collages from the early 1930s, but he lacked the Surrealists’ interest in psychology and repressed sexuality. His world is spiritual – like a fairy tale of the gods. Signatures, inscriptions and marks Påskrift på den övre listens insida: "1/2 = ball in each compartment" och "1/2 = ball each (wooden) compartment" Selected exhibition history Moderna Museets samling i ny presentation (1998-2000) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Moderna Museet c/o Bildmuseet - Dada och surrealism (2003) Bildmuseet, Umeå Den underjordiska himlen. Surrealism i Moderna Museets samling (den 26 oktober 2024 - den 17 januari 2027) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Internationell Surrealism (1998) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Bibliography Brougher, Kerry, "Hall of Mirrors", i Art and Film Since 1945: Hall of Mirrors, red Russell Ferguson, New York 1996, s 34.