Birds of a Feather: Joseph Cornell’s Homage to Juan Gris

Mary Clare Mckinley 

Hardcover | 18.54 x 2.03 x 23.37 cm | 96 pp

Yale University Press | 2017 | 9781588396273

Joseph Cornell first viewed Cubist painter Juan Gris’s The Man at the Café in October 1953. This visual encounter prompted Cornell to create more than a dozen hand-constructed shadow boxes as homages to Gris, each featuring a variation on a motif that echoes formal elements in Gris’s painting. 

This unique book explores Cornell’s deep fascination with Gris, uncovering within Cornell’s work multiple allusions to Gris’s crucial influence and investigating cross-currents such as the artists’ shared interests in French culture and the ballet.  Birds of a Feather yields a new perspective on Cornell’s famed boxes while also shedding light on Gris’s painting, establishing points of connection between two key figures of the avant-garde who lived a generation apart.