Joseph Cornell and Laurence Vail: Pioneers of Assemblage

with Gražina Subelytė

In the fall of 1942, Peggy Guggenheim opened her museum-gallery, Art of This Century, in New York. The first temporary exhibition held there included objects created by U.S. artist Joseph Cornell and French-born U.S. artist and writer, and former husband of Peggy Guggenheim, Laurence Vail. Cornell and Vail are considered pioneers of collage and assemblage, two artistic innovations which are the starting point of this lecture focused on these artists’ practice and their impact on modern and contemporary art.

While Vail was one of the main figures of the Parisian art scene during the 1920s, becoming a member of the Dada group and traveling extensively, Cornell rarely left his home in New York. Vail persistently criticized the European bourgeoisie through satirical collages, while Cornell was primarily interested in telling stories through the boxes he created using random objects he found on the street.

Two very different lives that were, however, united in the development of new techniques that were crucial to the development of contemporary art.