Joseph Cornell was an American visual artist and film-maker, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmmaker. He was largely self-taught in his artistic efforts, and improvised his own original style incorporating cast-off and discarded artifacts. He lived most of his life in relative physical isolation, caring for his mother and his disabled brother at home, but remained aware of and in contact with other contemporary artists.
Cornell in 1971
Joseph Cornell Untitled (Dieppe) c. 1958, Museum of Modern Art, (New York City).
Assemblage is an artistic form or medium usually created on a defined substrate that consists of three-dimensional elements projecting out of or from the substrate. It is similar to collage, a two-dimensional medium. It is part of the visual arts and it typically uses found objects, but is not limited to these materials.
Johann Dieter Wassmann (Jeff Wassmann), Vorwarts! (Go Forward!), 1897 (2003).
John Chamberlain, S, 1959, in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Werner Stürenburg, Nr. 5, 1968
Lubo Kristek, Soundproof Aesthetic of Luxuriety, 1976