Wes Anderson Recreates Joseph Cornell’s Utopia Parkway Studio in Paris

This meticulous reconstruction of Joseph Cornell’s famously private workspace brings the spirit of his seldom-seen basement studio into public view. © 2025 The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: Thomas Lannes, courtesy Gagosian

In his lifetime, Joseph Cornell’s studio was a top destination for many in the art world. But not all were invited to the basement of his modest Dutch Colonial home on Utopia Parkway in Flushing, Queens. The painfully shy recluse extended the offer to very few—mainly women, who might furnish their male counterparts with a book and a seat at the kitchen table to wile away the time. But now, anyone can visit. Not the actual studio, of course, but a painstaking replica titled “The House on Utopia Parkway: Joseph Cornell’s Studio Re-Created by Wes Anderson,” which is the brainchild of curator Jasper Sharp and the filmmaker and will occupy the storefront windows at Gagosian in Paris through March 14.

Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter

Thank you for signing up!

By clicking submit, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime.

“He said let’s recreate the workshop and all of his tools and his table and his furniture,” Sharp recalls Anderson suggesting. “So, that’s what we’ve done. We loved the idea of doing it on street level, a storefront, and creating an exhibition that we never open the door to. It’s entirely consumed on the street.”

A famous hoarder, Cornell spent his days scouring secondhand stores, flea markets and other venues, choosing objects that caught his eye and storing them away for future use. The basement was more like a workshop than your average artist studio, packed to the rafters with items that might look like junk to anyone else, but to Cornell were sweet morsels which, when paired properly in one of his glass-fronted shadowboxes, conjured magic. Much like the artist’s own assemblages, the Gagosian installation paints a portrait of one of modern art’s most enigmatic figures.

While recreating the studio might not sound like an overwhelming challenge, the project required arduous research, drawing on accounts from curators, friends, family members, assistants, and collectors. Sharp and his team relied on the few photos that........

© Observer

visit website