joseph cornell, american, the museum of modern art, moma, new york, 1980, 80's 

Joseph Cornell remains one of the most popular artists of the 20th century. This work provides an insight into the artist's remarkable inner world: a universe populated with empty cages, mirrors, clay pipes, postage stamps, marbles, thimbles and paper scraps, Cornell collected in his basement repository and fashioned into self-contained constructions, montages, collages and films. The artist's relationship to both American and European Romanticism, his involvement with the Surrealist movement, the peculiar mechanics of his work, and a glimpse at his cinematic explorations are accompanied by an illuminating biography and numerous illustrations. This survey brings to life the work of a brilliant artist whose imaginative re-ordering of the world's chaos is still as inspirational as ever. - from Amzon