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©
The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation/VAGA, NY/ VEGAP
Joseph Cornell

Blue Soap Bubble

1949 - 1950
Construction.
24.5 x 30.5 x 9.6 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
492
(
1978.11
)
ROOM 48
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms 54 Postpop rooms 55 Postpop rooms 56 Postpop rooms Rodin Exhibition room
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Discover some of the secrets and details invaluable to the human eye in this work.

The solitary Joseph Cornell, who belonged to the same generation as the Abstract Expressionists, led his life in a modest wooden house located on Utopia Parkway, in Queens, and his sole contact with the art world was his occasional forays into Manhattan in search of objects for his works. A compulsive collector, Cornell tirelessly sought and hoarded countless pieces of bric-à-brac for the purpose of creating visual poems enclosed in small glass-fronted boxes that recall Surrealist poetics.

Cornell began to be influenced by Surrealism during the final years of the Second World War, when André Breton and several of his followers took up residence in New York. These magical and powerfully evocative artefacts enclose nostalgic images whose meaning is difficult to decipher, as they spring from the fantasy world of their creator. Unlike the Dadaists, the artist did not aim to convert everyday junk into works of art but rather to transform found objects into symbols of his own desires or dreams.

Blue Soap Bubble, executed from 1949 to 1950, belongs to a set of early constructions based on the artist’s childhood memories. It is directly related to Soap Bubble Set, the first box Cornell produced in 1936, which Alfred Barr included in the legendary Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism exhibition shown at The Museum of Modern Art that same year. The meanings of the various elements that make up the present construction have been disclosed by Diane Waldman: the blue-painted drawer represents the sea, to which the starfish and sand trapped beneath the glass also belong; the two silver balls may symbolise the planets; the glass goblets inside the box represent the cradle of life and the four cylinders the four members of his family; and the metal ring may refer both to the utensil for making bubbles and the moon that governs the tides. As in most of his works, the back of Blue Soap Bubble has a collage made from a series of printed pages of Italian text.

Paloma Alarcó

20th Centurys. XX - Neodadaísmo en NorteaméricaConstructionConstruction
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Blue Soap Bubble. Burbuja de jabón azul, 1949-1950
Blue Soap Bubble
Joseph Cornell

©

The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation/VAGA, NY/ VEGAP

Terms of Use

The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes and non-commercial uses.

However, this work is protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the images set out by the Fundación, it will be necessary to obtain a license from the author or copyright holder known to the Fundacion in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

Use for educational and research purposes is understood as the non-commercial use of images in presentations, conferences, school or university work, in classes at regulated education institutions, as well as in academic publications, with a circulation of less than 1,000 copies, provided that it is non-profit.

Non-commercial use is understood as the use of the images in a context where no profit, monetary or commercial, is generated, directly or indirectly.

Any use other than those indicated above will require the prior written authorization of the Fundación.

Any request for educational and research use or for non-commercial use (including academic publications), should be directed by email to the Museum Photo Library through the email address archivo.fotografico@museothyssen.org. This department manages the worldwide distribution of the images of the works of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and the management of their reproduction rights for those uses.

The user agrees to use the image of the website solely and exclusively for the purposes described above and in accordance with the following terms of use, which, however, do not apply to the reproduction of the works included in the photographs, as they are protected by Copyright.

Terms of use

  • If the image is used for reproduction, the work must be reproduced in its entirety. The image may not be manipulated, deformed, modified or altered in any way. In particular, no superposition (of images or texts) on the reproduction is allowed.
  • The reproduction of a detail or part of the work may only be made with the prior written authorization of the Fundación P. In this case, the credit line must include the following mention: “detail”.
  • Any total or partial reproduction of the images of the Fundación. that has been previously authorized must be accompanied by the copyright text indicated by the owners or their copyright holders as well as the following mention: Provenance: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid”.
  • The user will send free of charge to the Museum Photo Library. One (1) free copy of the edition, publication or reproduction to the following address: Archivo Fotográfico, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado, 8 28014 Madrid, Spain.
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Commercial use
Blue Soap Bubble. Burbuja de jabón azul, 1949-1950
Blue Soap Bubble
Joseph Cornell

©

The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation/VAGA, NY/ VEGAP

Terms of Use

The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes and non-commercial uses.

However, this work is protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the images set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from the author or copyright holder known to the Fundacion in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

Use for educational and research purposes is understood as the non-commercial use of images in presentations, conferences, school or university work, in classes at regulated education institutions, as well as in academic publications, with a circulation of less than 1,000 copies, provided that it is non-profit.

Non-commercial use is understood as the use of the images in a context where no profit, monetary or commercial, is generated, directly or indirectly.

Any use other than those indicated above will require the prior written authorisation of the Fundación.

Any request for educational and research use or for non-commercial use (including academic publications), should be directed by email to the Museum Photo Library through the email address archivo.fotografico@museothyssen.org. This department manages the worldwide distribution of the images of the works of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and the management of their reproduction rights for those uses.

The user agrees to use the image of the website solely and exclusively for the purposes described above and in accordance with the following terms of use, which, however, do not apply to the reproduction of photographs, as they are protected by Copyright.

Terms of use

Any total or partial reproduction of the images of the Fundación that has been previously authorised must be accompanied by the copyright text indicated by the owners or their copyright holders as well as the following mention: Provenance: Carmen Thyssen.

  • If the image is used for reproduction, the work must be reproduced in its entirety. The image may not be manipulated, deformed, modified or altered in any way. In particular, no superposition (of images or texts) on the reproduction is allowed.
  • The reproduction of a detail or part of the work may only be made with the prior written authorization of the Fundacion. In this case, the credit line must include the following mention: “detail”.
  • The user will send free of charge to the Museum Photo Library one (1) free copy of the edition, publication or reproduction to the following address: Archivo Fotográfico, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado, 8 28014 Madrid, Spain.
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