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FeedDaniell Cornell
Deputy Director for Art and Senior Curator Palm Springs Art Museum
Daniell Cornell
What’s your philosophy in presenting art?
My approach is to integrate contemporary art into other contexts, so that people have a way to approach it and begin to know what kinds of questions to ask. Because if you ask the right questions, the art will answer you.
Which upcoming exhibitions excite you most?
In the fall, we open Richard Avedon: Fashion, Stage, and Screen, an exhibition that goes back to Avedon’s early fashion photography in the ’40s and ’50s, when he was in Paris and Rome, and he took the model out of the studio and put her on the street. He created a very dynamic way of presenting fashion that completely revolutionized it. Following [Avedon] is an exhibition of midcentury modernist architect Donald Wexler. It will be the first complete compendium of Wexler’s projects, in addition to showcasing his work. The exhibition will feature a full-scale replica of the entrance to one of his iconic steel houses.
Describe the different mediums found at the museum.
Contemporary artists take the entire world as their medium. We have a sculpture by Lucas Samaras on view made out of bent coat hangers, yarn, and carpet nails. … Artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol began to incorporate mass media and popular culture. Warhol was famous for soup cans and Brillo boxes, and we have the Brillo box dress currently on view.
One of our newest pieces is by Southern California artist Tam Van Tram made out of archival board painted with an acrylic in which he suspends the algae product spirulina, creating an unusual painted surface. The painted board is shaped into this sort of quadruple fan and looks like it’s squirming off the wall. It has a science-fiction sensibility to it, but, at the same time, references very common materials, and is held together with staples you get at office supply stores.
Why visit Palm Springs Art Museum?
Because the building itself is an interesting dialog between midcentury modernism and a style of architecture very prominent in the ’70s called New Brutalism. ... In addition to exciting exhibitions, we have amazing collection, including a gift from Donna and Cargill MacMillan. [featuring more than 100 contemporary paintings, sculptures, design objects, and works on paper], and remarkable sculpture collections, featuring mid-century works from Gwendolyn Weiner. These collections have made us one of the most significant midsized museums in the country.
PSAM’s major Exhibitions
Richard Avedon: Fashion, Stage and Screen
Oct. 16–Jan. 30, 2011
Approximately 90 black-and-white photographs explore photographer Richard Avedon’s use of the camera to create images that helped to define fashion, theater, and movies as interrelated worlds.
Steel and Shade: The Architecture of Donald Wexler
Jan. 29-May 29, 2011
Highlights the accomplishments of architect Donald Wexler, who practiced during what he calls the “golden age” of California architecture from the immediate postwar years through the 1970s.
John Baldessari: A Print Retrospective from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation
Feb. 26-June 26, 2011
For more than 40 years, John Baldessari has been a mainstay of the Southern California art scene and a key contributor to national and international explorations of conceptual art in its many idioms.
Palm Spring Art Museum is located in downtown Palm Springs at 101 Museum Drive. The museum is open Tue.-Wed., Fri.-Sun. 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Thu. 12–8 p.m., with free admission Thursdays 4-8 p.m. during VillageFest and also the second Sunday of the month. A Community Day on Oct. 30, also offers free admission 11 a.m.–4 p.m. in honor of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). For more information, call 1-760-322-4800 or visit www.psmuseum.org.
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