Joseph Cornell Film Series at San Francisco’s MoMA
October 11th, 2007 by Andre Soares
Matt Sussman in the San Francisco Bay Guardian:
"Joseph Cornell’s cinema remains the central enigma of his work," Anthology Film Archives founder and Visionary Film author P. Adams Sitney wrote in 1980. That’s a tall order for an artist whose near-crippling sense of doubt about his artistic worth, coupled with his hermetic tendencies, further enhances the enigmatic and curious air that surrounds his vitrine[-]like assemblages of bric-a-brac, Victorian printed matter, old toys, and star charts — ephemera gently scavenged from the scrap heap of history in New York’s dime stores and junk shops. While Cornell the artist and Cornell the man have become more transparent in the years since Sitney’s essay, the mysteriousness of Cornell’s films — their ‘roughness’ and ‘insidiousness,’ to use Sitney’s
delicious phrasing — still holds."
At San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art, from Saturday, October 06, 2007 - Sunday, January 06, 2008:
"A self-taught artist, Joseph Cornell relied almost exclusively on found materials. He collected items from books, newspapers, second-hand stores, exploratory walks — even sweepings from his studio floor — to create intricate, elaborate box constructions and collages. These enchanting works of art transformed commonplace objects into extraordinary and magical dreamscapes, earning him immediate and enduring respect as a sort of artistic alchemist. Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination brings together nearly 200 works dating from the 1930s until the artist’s death in 1972, offering the first comprehensive retrospective of his work in a quarter century at its only West Coast venue."
Joseph Cornell Films
October 12 - December 14, 2007
Phyllis Wattis Theater
"In conjunction with the exhibition Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination, SFMOMA and San Francisco Cinematheque copresent three programs of Cornell’s experimental films and those he influenced. The programs include celluloid screenings of the Cornell films available on video in the Koret Visitor Education Center as well as a number of rarities.
"Cornell’s work in film was unlike any that had come before. Salvador Dalí is said to have exclaimed, ‘My idea for a film is exactly that! . . . It is as if he had stolen it from my subconscious.’ The first and second programs feature an assortment of Cornell’s films, including his celebrated Rose Hobart (1936), an assemblage of edited footage from the 1931 B movie East of Borneo. The third program consists of works influenced by Cornell as well as films produced toward the end of his life in collaboration with avant-garde luminaries such as Stan Brakhage, Rudy Burckhardt, and Larry Jordan."
Friday, October 12, 2007 / Friday, November 30, 2007
Total running time: 80 min.
3:00 p.m.
Phyllis Wattis Theater
Rose Hobart, 1936, 19 min.
Cotillion, 1940, 8 min.
The Midnight Party, 1940, 3 min.
The Children’s Party, 1940, 8 min.
The Aviary, 1954, 11 min.
Nymphlight, 1957, 7 min.
A Legend for Fountains, 1957/1965, 17 min.
Angel, 1957, 3 min.
Gnir Rednow, Stan Brakhage and Joseph Cornell, 1955-late 1960s, 6 min.
Friday, October 19, 2007 / Friday, December 07, 2007
Total running time: 74 min.
3:00 p.m.
Phyllis Wattis Theater
Mulberry Street, 1957/1965, 9 min.
Untitled (Bookstalls), ca. 1930s, 11 min.
Vaudeville De-Luxe, ca. 1940s, 12 min.
By Night with Torch and Spear, ca. 1940s, 8 min.
New York-Rome-Barcelona-Brussels, ca. 1940s, 10 min.
Children, 1957, 8 min.
Boys’ Games, 1957, 5 min.
Joanne, Union Square, 1957, 7 min.
Cloches à travers les feuilles/Claude Debussy, 1957, 4 min.
Friday, October 26, 2007 / Thursday, December 06, 2007 / Friday, December 14, 2007
Total running time: 104 min.
3:00 p.m.
Phyllis Wattis Theater
Cornell, 1965, Larry Jordan, 1978, 9 min.
The Wonder Ring, Stan Brakhage, 1955, 6 min.
Rose Hobart, Joseph Cornell, 1936, 19 min.
The Secret Story, Janie Geiser, 1996, 9 min.
Centuries of June, Stan Brakhage and Joseph Cornell, 1955, 11 min.
What Mozart Saw on Mulberry Street, Rudy Burckhardt, 1956, 6 min.
Flower, the Boy, the Librarian, Stephanie Barber, 1996, 5 min.
Our Lady of the Sphere, Larry Jordan, 1972, 10 min.
What Makes Day and Night, Jeanne Liotta, 1998, 10 min.
Her Fragrant Emulsion, Lewis Klahr, 1987, 10 min.
Oona’s Veil, Brian Frye, 2000, 8 min.
Gnir Rednow, Stan Brakhage and Joseph Cornell, 1955-late 1960s, 6 min.
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