A Parrot for Juan Gris

winter 1953-1954

Joseph Cornell

Associated Names
Joseph Cornell

Artist, American, 1903 - 1972

This is a rectangular wooden frame or shadow box enclosing a collage of layered shapes and lines. At the center is a cut-out of a white parrot perching on a branch, which appears to be made of paper or cardboard and is raised away from the rest of the material on the back of the box. Below the bird is curved piece of wood with a flat top and bottom which is attached to the back of the box, giving the impression that it is floating below the bird. On the right of the bird, a piece of silver thread or wire dangles from a metal ring that is attached to a pole that runs horizontally across the top of the piece. The background is composed of torn fragments of maps and newsprint arranged in an irregular fashion. There is also a piece of black paper cut out in the shape of the bird's shadow. Resting on the bottom of the shadow box is a small wooden ball on the left, and on the right appears to be a small piece of folded paper.
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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Gagosian Gallery, New York); purchased 10 November 1992 by Robert Lehrman, Washington, DC; gift 2023 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1967

  • Joseph Cornell, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1967, unnumbered checklist.

1968

  • Boxes and Collages by Joseph Cornell, Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA, 1968, no. 3.

1980

  • Joseph Cornell, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1980-1981; Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1981; Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, 1981; Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, 1981; Musée de l'Art Moderne, Paris, 1981; Chicago Art Institute, 1982; Museum of Modern Art Catalogue, no. XXIV, repro.

1999

  • Joseph Cornell: Memories, Joseph Helman Gallery, New York, 1999, unnumbered checklist.

2007

  • Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, 2007; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, 2007; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2007-2008; no. 131, repro.

2015

  • Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust, Royal Academy of Art, London; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; 2015-2016, no. 61, repro.

2018

  • Birds of a Feather: Joseph Cornell's Homage to Juan Gris, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2018, no. 1, repro.

Bibliography

1967

  • Kozloff, Max. "ART." The Nation (May 29, 1967): 701-702.

1978

  • D'Harnoncourt, Anne. "The Cubist Cockatoo: A Preliminary Exploration of Joseph Cornell's Homages to Juan Gris." Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 74 no. 321 (1978): 11, 13, repro.

2001

  • Foer, Jonathan Safran, ed. _ A Convergence of Birds: Original Fiction and Poetry Inspired by the Work of Joseph Cornell_. New York, 2001: 182, repro.

2002

  • Waldman, Diane. Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams. New York, 2002: 100-101, repro.

2003

  • Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe, Richard Vine, and Robert Lehrman. Joseph Cornell: Shadowplay, Eterniday. Washington, 2003: 134-135, repro, 255.

2005

  • Fenn, Julia Geraldine. Chance Encounters: The Construction of Meaning Through the Process of Assemblage in the Boxes of Joseph Cornell and the Contemporary Jewellery of Thomas Mann. Johannesburg, 2005: 21, 26-27, fig. 9.

2010

  • Boon, Marcus. In Praise of Copying. Camrbidge, MA, 2010: 143.

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