Untitled (Soap Bubble Set)

Soap bubble sets were among Cornell’s earliest imaginary constructions, going back to his contribution to the 1936–37 exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. This box forms an interesting contrast with the other Soap Bubble Set in the Bergman collection (see Soap Bubble Set). Here the bold form of the moon fills the back panel, its pitted surface finding an echo in the cork ball suspended on the parallel rods. Like the earlier box, this one includes a drinking glass. A clay pipe lying on the floor of the box forges the link between the “bubbles” and the planets. Cornell seems to wish to counteract, however, the obviously poetic, dreamlike connotations of this box by emphasizing the scientific interest of the moon through its precisely “mapped” surface and the tables with astronomical data pasted in at the left and right.