wes anderson rebuilds joseph cornell’s legendary studio inside gagosian paris

the exhibition, which runs until march 14th, 2026, marks cornell’s first solo presentation in paris in more than forty years.

thomai tsimpou December 17, 2025 6 min

WES ANDERSON recreates joseph CORNELL’S studio in gagosian paris

The House on Utopia Parkway: Joseph Cornell’s Studio Re-Created by Wes Anderson transforms Gagosian Paris into a reconstruction of the artist’s Queens basement workspace. Conceived by curator Jasper Sharp in collaboration with the American filmmaker, the exhibition, which runs until March 14th, 2026, marks Cornell’s first solo presentation in Paris in more than forty years, translating his private world of boxes, fragments, and found materials into a life-size environment that sits somewhere between installation, archive, and cinematic set.

Rather than presenting Cornell’s work through a conventional gallery display, the exhibition begins with the space itself. Anderson, working with several longtime collaborators and exhibition designer Cécile Degos, reimagines the modest studio Cornell maintained in his family home on Utopia Parkway, Queens. Shelves of whitewashed boxes, tins, and drawers are filled with more than three hundred objects drawn from the artist’s own collection, including prints, feathers, marbles, maps, toys, shells, and paper scraps, what Cornell once called his ‘spare parts department.’

wes anderson rebuilds joseph cornell's legendary studio inside gagosian paris - 1 — all images courtesy of Gagosian Paris

COLLECTING, SORTING, AND IMAGINATION TAKE SPATIAL FORM

Joseph Cornell (1903–1972) is often described through negation, as he did not draw, paint, or sculpt and had no formal art education. Yet working almost entirely from this basement studio, and never traveling beyond the United States, he produced one of the most influential bodies of work of the twentieth century. Paris, in particular, occupied a central place in his imagination, accessed through postcards, guidebooks, and conversations with Marcel Duchamp. Dozens of his works reference French poets, architecture, and historical figures, forming a mental geography built from images rather than experience.

Within the reconstructed studio in Gagosian Paris, several of Cornell’s shadow boxes anchor the exhibition. Pharmacy (1943), modeled after an antique apothecary cabinet and once owned by Teeny and Marcel Duchamp, brings together glass bottles filled with paper cuttings, pigments, and found materials. Untitled (Pinturicchio Boy) (c. 1950), from the Medici series, layers reproductions of a Renaissance portrait behind amber-tinted glass alongside maps and wooden toys, while A Dressing Room for Gille (1939) references Watteau’s Pierrot, held just blocks away at the Louvre. Blériot II (c. 1956) looks to early aviation, honoring the French inventor who first crossed the English Channel by plane. Together, these works read less as isolated objects and more as nodes within a wider system of references, obsessions, and quiet rituals.

wes anderson rebuilds joseph cornell's legendary studio inside gagosian paris - 2 — a reconstruction of the artist’s Queens basement workspace

THE HOUSE ON UTOPIA PARKWAY and the act of assembly

The House on Utopia Parkway also includes loans from the Joseph Cornell Study Center at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among them unfinished boxes that expose the artist’s working method. These partial works disrupt the sense of preciousness often associated with Cornell, emphasizing instead trial, rearrangement, and contingency. Seen within the recreated studio, they underline how his practice relied as much on patient sorting and revisiting as on moments of poetic resolution.

Visible through the street-facing window of the gallery, the installation turns Gagosian’s storefront into a life-size Cornell box, softly lit from within. The display recalls the hours Cornell spent working late into the night, alone with his materials, while also echoing Anderson’s own interest in constructed worlds and carefully framed interiors.