Joseph cornell.

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[Joseph Cornell]

Many of Cornell's most brilliant boxes were not intended for the museums in which they now reside. They were gifts, tokens of affection -- I love this. You will love this. He had them delivered to his favorite movie stars and authors. He handed them, personally to his most loved ballerinas. And hey were almost uniformly sent back. He was reject, laughed at, and, in one unfortunate case, tackled.

But the boxes themselves -- not his hopelessly romantic supplication -- survived. More than survived, they came to be considered among the most seminal works of twentieth-century art. Their call beckoned, and continues to beckon, curators, museum-goers, and so many artists and writers. Their call, not Cornell's. They became gifts of gifts of gifts of gifts -- a cascade of gifts without fixed givers or receivers.

Jonathan Safran Foer

Jackson Heights, New York

September 2001