ABSTRACT
Joseph Cornell was one of the great American artists, and despite his simple life and eccentric character, one of the most proli®c and successful as well. His career spanned ®ve decades and during that time his work never went out of critical favor. He had shows at major New York galleries and the most prestigious museums and private collections in the world. The vast majority of his artworks were ``shadow boxes'' within which he constructed compositions of such exquisite expressiveness and aesthetic re®nement that, even given the capricious tastes of the art community, he became an inspiration for several generations of artists.
