World building: Yayoi Kusama and Joseph Cornell

One paints with motifs that echo infinity; one builds box constructions that contain a universe. Yayoi Kusama and Joseph Cornell, each in their own unique visions, were inspired by the expanse of space and time. As Kusama noted in Kusama: Infinity “I convert the energy of life into dots of the universe. And that energy, along with love, flies into the sky,” Cornell would say of his box constructions: “Shadow boxes become poetic theater or settings wherein are metamorphosed the elements of a childhood pastime. The fragile, shimmering globules become the shimmering but more enduring planets—a connotation of moon and tides—the association of water less subtle, as when driftwood pieces make up a proscenium to set off the dazzling white of sea foam and billowy cloud crystallized in a pipe of fancy.” The works featured in our 20th Century Art + Design auction each relay space and time, Kusama through her use of polka dots and nets, and Cornell with his application of 19th century horological books, creating an immersive space for the viewer.

Though born on different continents twenty-six years apart, Kusama and Cornell were in many ways cut from the same cloth. Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto City, Japan on March 22, 1929 into a prominent family. Joseph Cornell was born in Nyack, New York on December 24, 1903 into a prominent family. Both were beset with an overbearing mother and each struggled with obsessive compulsion in their later years. Each suffered loss due to their father, Cornell from his father’s untimely death as a teen and Kusama by losing her innocence catching her father’s numerous dalliances. It is no surprise then, in spite of the emphasis on their age difference, that Kusama and Cornell entered into a passionate yet platonic relationship soon after meeting in the 1960s. They were orbiting planets, even if they approached life and art from a different angle. Neither was interested in the act of sex, so, in Kusama’s words “we didn’t have sex.” Cornell wrote dozens of letters at a time to Kusama and would call her multiple times a day. Unlike some male artists of the time, Cornell did not take her ideas and fold them into his own work, instead he encouraged her art and she inspired his, with Cornell completing many collages and drawings in her honor. Their relationship changed after Cornell’s mother dumped a bucket of water on the couple as they were kissing under the quince tree in Cornell’s yard. Kusama was irreversibly hurt that Cornell apologized not to her but to his mother. However, they maintained a passionate correspondence that lasted until Cornell’s death in 1972 which affected Kusama very deeply. After Kusama’s break from art in the 1970s, it was Cornell’s gift of his collage material, which she had taken with her to Japan, that brought her back to creating.