Sun. Aug. 19

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) created several thousand pieces of art over the course of his career, which took off in the early 1930s. About 180 of those are up at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. It wraps up today, Sunday August 19. See it! It’s astonishing in breadth, detail and scope. Cornell, who lived and worked in Flushing, NY, is primarily a sculptor – he loved building boxes and putting curious items in them, sometimes wiring them for sound and lights – but the self-taught artist also worked in film, created collages, and was influenced by math and astronomy.
Lynda Hartigan, chief curator at Peabody Essex Museum and of this show called “Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination,” has been studying Cornell off-and-on for 30 years, ever since she was a graduate school intern. She calls it a “right place and right time” situation, being identified by a museum curator as “a prospect.”
Putting together this exhibit was both “a lot of hard work and a labor of love,” says Hartigan. (In photo: Cornell's Penny Arcade Lauren Bacall.) Cornell has been called a surrealist – understandably – but Hartigan says, “He very strongly felt art was a form of communication. That set him apart during his time frame. He was of the generation where many artists got caught up in art for arts sake. He did not get caught up in that. He was making art to uplift.” Cornell had his first one-man show in 1932; by 1950, says Hartigan, he was making a living. He was not rich, but he no longer had to do a day job.

He was also celibate. After his father died, Cornell, a deeply spiritual Christian Scientist, cared for his mother, two younger sisters and a brother with Cerebral Palsy. Hartigan: “He made a conscious decision to take care of family as opposed to generate his own family.”
Some have painted Cornell – who collected everything from magazines to marbles to rhinestones to photos of movie stars – as a recluse. Hartigan differs, calling him  “a shy man” who traveled to New York City frequently and cultivated relationships through correspondence.
There is a sense of wonder and whimsy in Cornell’s work. When we toured the five-room, second-floor exhibit, we spent an hour and could have easily tripled that. One thing that didn’t seem to be there was anger. “He did have a core of frustration in his life,” says Hartigan, and “he was extraordinarily upset by World War II. But he was a humanitarian. His art was to be made and appreciated for positive ends.” Admission: $13. (Discounts available for seniors and students.)  Open 10-5 p.m.

East India Square, Salem, 866-745-1876 www.pem.org