Soap Bubble Set

Joseph Cornell, Soap Bubble Set, 1949-1950, glasses, pipes, printed paper, and other media in a glass-fronted wood box, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the American Art Forum, 1999.91
Copied Joseph Cornell, Soap Bubble Set, 1949-1950, glasses, pipes, printed paper, and other media in a glass-fronted wood box, 14 3⁄4 x 18 3⁄4 x 4 1⁄4 in. (37.5 x 47.6 x 10.7 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the American Art Forum, 1999.91

Artwork Details

Title
Soap Bubble Set
Artist
Date
1949-1950
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
14 3⁄4 x 18 3⁄4 x 4 1⁄4 in. (37.5 x 47.6 x 10.7 cm.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase made possible by the American Art Forum
Mediums
Mediums Description
glasses, pipes, printed paper, and other media in a glass-fronted wood box
Classifications
Subjects
  • Landscape — celestial
  • Still life — toy — ball
  • Object — other — dish
  • Object — written matter — map
  • Object — other — smoking material
Object Number
1999.91
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1999.91

Artwork Description

Soap Bubble Set offers a theatrical glimpse into the cosmos. Situated on Earth, the viewer observes the mountains and valleys of the moon, first discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. The glasses, holding specimens of land and sea, embody the gravitational pull of the earth, perhaps in relation to the lunar influence on tides. The freely moving sphere rolls between the opposing forces while cutouts of shells, stars, and other references to the natural world float above. Following Edwin Hubble's confirmation of the rapidly expanding universe in 1929, the metaphor of a swelling soap bubble proliferated in the popular press. For Cornell, who had a long-standing interest in astronomy and stayed abreast of breaking news, this metaphor would have resonated with his own memories of blowing bubbles with clay pipes as a child and the wonder of their creation. Cornell's series of Soap Bubble Sets, sometimes called planetariums, is a decade-long rumination on the great astronomers of the past and the contemporary discoveries and innovations in space technology.