A small strip of wood attached to the bottom front causes the box to rest at a slight angle. When tipped the blue sand collects in a spout at the top and pours into a broken cordial glass after the construction is returned to its original position. Except for the sides, the work is covered with pages from French texts. The box is dedicated to Paul Valery, the French poet-mathematician whose most creative work was produced after many years of quietude and contemplation in the early part of this century.
Like so many of the artist's works, Sand Fountain (pour Valery) induces a pensive meditation in the viewer. The erosion of material things in the face of time is suggested by the peeling surfaces, the broken glass, the printing which is not entirely legible, and the running of the sand. Then the sand stops. It is as if an archaeological discovery has been unearthed, and after removing a part of the incrustation, one is confronted with the undecipherable Word of an ancient civilization. And then one realizes that that too is transitory and lies in ruins.
Source: Bulletin, November-December 1970.
Exhibition History"Joseph Cornell," Museum of Modern Art, N. Y., Nov. 12, 1980 - Jan. 20, 1981 (the exhibition circulated to the Art Institute of Chicago and four European locations, but this work did not travel)
"Works by Joseph Cornell," Des Moines Art Center, Sept. 3 - Dec. 6, 1970
Published ReferencesDeborah Solomon, UTOPIA PARKWAY: THE LIFE AND WORK OF JOSEPH CORNELL, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1997, pp.248 & 258
DES MOINES TRIBUNE, Dec. 25, 1973, ill.
DMAC Bulletin, Nov. - Dec. 1970, cover ill.
"America's Treasures of Religious Art," a portfolio selected for A.D. by ten museum directors, A.D., Presbyterian Life and United Church Herald Editions, N.Y., December 1973, ill. p.38
"Recent Accessions," THE ART QUARTERLY, vol. XXXIII, no. 4, Winter 1970, ref. p.462, ill. p.465
"Joseph Cornell," Museum of Modern Art, N. Y., 1980, exh. cat. no.116, b/w ill.
AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.82, color ill. p.83
DES MOINES REGISTER, Aug. 22, 1970, ill. p.16
DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. pp.51 & 52, b/w ill. p.51
"Joseph Cornell et les surréalistes à New York", Musee des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Editions Hazan, Paris, 2013, color ill. pg. 40
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