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

In October 1953, Joseph Cornell wrote at the top of a page in his diary: ‘Juan Gris / Janis Yesterday.’ The annotation referred to Cornell’s visit to the Sidney Janis Gallery in Manhattan. Among a presentation of works by modern artists, one alone captivated Cornell – Juan Gris’s collage The Man at the Café (1914). It immediately inspired Cornell to begin a new series: some 18 boxes, two collages, and one sand tray created in homage to Juan Gris. Completed over a period of 15 years, Cornell’s series of Gris shadow boxes is more extensive in number than any other that the artist openly dedicated to one of his admired luminaries of stage, screen, literature, art. This exhibition will reunite for the first time nearly a dozen boxes from Cornell’s Gris series together with The Man at the Café. Find out more about the ‘Birds of a Feather’ exhibition from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website.

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