For Children
Boxes containing miniature worlds
Dulcie Leimbach
Friday, August 28, 1992
Section C1

Joseph Cornell: Revisited
Henry DeFord 3d Gallery
Citicorp Tower
1 Court Square
Long Island City, Queens
(718) 248-0691
Recommended ages: 4 and up
Through Sept 4.

The artist Joseph Cornell, who lived most of his life on Utopia Parkway in Flushing, Queens, was the first modern artist to devote his creative abilities to what he called shadow boxes. Children will not only find something childlike in these encapsulated miniature worlds, but they may also discover that all the objects they've sequestered amid dust balls under their beds can be gathered and organized into micro-universes. It's not that Cornell's work is simple enough to be copied by a child, but these boxes could give children ideas for their own artworks made of everyday objects.

The show also includes contemporary artists who also make shadow boxes, inspired by Cornell. Children will surely find Tom Duncan's "Environment in the Year 2000" devilishly humorous. It depicts a layered scene of rusty cars, trucks and a crane on street level about a fallout shelter,  elves, alligators in dungeons, a subway train and ants below ground. Mr. Duncan's "Fear of Bears" is also slightly wicked, with the frame covered in fake fur and in the box tiny bears chasing tiny men up wintry trees.

Most of the boxes can be seen from a 5-year-old's eye level. The exhibition, which is free, is in the Citicorp Tower's gallery lobby. Hours are Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. The E and F trains stop at the 23d Street station, directly beneath the green skyscraper.