North Carolina Museum of Art

Joseph Cornell fabricated shadow boxes and filled them with objects collected both by chance and choice. With invention and insight, he teased themes from these unlikely groupings, most often revolving around time and memory.

In Suzy’s Sun (for Judy Tyler), the sun (a cutout from an antipasto tin) and the sea (an implied presence) speak eloquently of life cycles and passing time. Equally potent symbols, driftwood and the infinitely spiraling seashell readily bring to mind the tides on which they ride, summoning a universal metaphor for the ebb and flow of life itself. In small details—a postage stamp showing a multimasted schooner, the collaged word hotel—Cornell uses the romantic notion of travel to far-off lands as additional commentary on one’s passage through life.

Cornell dedicated this box to an actress. Judy Tyler had just achieved a certain celebrity when she was killed in an automobile accident. Suzy probably refers to the artist’s assistant, Suzanne Miller. The sun, designated as Suzy’s, presides over the box as a life-sustaining force counteracting the finality of death.