John Cage A Selected Chronology of Visual Art Works

Best known as an experimental composer and performer, John Cage (1912-92) was also a visual artist who created an extensive body of prints, drawings, and watercolors during the last 20 years of his life.
In all of his work, regardless of medium, Cage consistently dismissed conventional aesthetics by limiting or eliminating the artist’s choice in the creative process. In composing his watercolors, he relied on his signature method of chance operations, guided by a system of random numbers derived from the Yijing.
The sight of silence: John Cage’s complete watercolors by Ray Kass (Charlottesville : University Press of Virginia, 2011) reproduces all of the 125 signed watercolors that Cage created during four week-long sessions at the Mountain Lake Workshop, Virginia, between 1983 and 1990.
The included critical essay and accompanying workshop diaries relate the methods at play in Cage’s visual art to those of his musical compositions and theater pieces. The accompanying DVD offers a live view of Cage at work, featuring a public reading with audience discussion, as well as an interview with him about his watercolor paintings.
bibliolore.org...
Music: Erik Satie "Three Gymnopedies: For Piano"
John Cage's repertoire was heavily influenced by that of Erik Satie. During his career Satie's main intention was to ridicule what he regarded as the 'pompous' in music and became captivated by the idea of reducing musical composition to its essential elements. His music was described by critics as sardonic and witty, brief and unpretentious. At a performance of one of the first theatrical work's in 1913, one critic remarked that Satie "might easily be described as 'Dada' except the 'Dadaist' movement had not yet been invented" (E. Myers quoted in C. Brown, Chance and Circumstances: twenty years with Cage and Cunningham, Evanston, 2007, p. 18). Cage has admitted that it was his love of Satie's work that caused him to rediscover what he termed his 'musical truth'. Following Satie's lead he began to free himself of the musical conventions of scales, modes and the traditional theories of counterpoint and harmony and became convinced that music was simply a pared-down combination of sound and silence.
www.christies....
Gymnopedie No 1 by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon...
Source: incompetech.com...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Gymnopedie No 2 by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon...
Source: incompetech.com...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Gymnopedie No 3 by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon...
Source: incompetech.com...
Artist: incompetech.com/
en.wikipedia.o...

[@RegWho]

Gnarly.

[@jayumble8390]

Very cool...but why is the sound track Erik Satie?? John Cage was a musician too.............? Really?

[@jeffreybennittjones2]

Because I didnt want to mess around with copyright issues and John Cage very much appreciated the music of Erik Satie and this music was in the list of creative commons. I would have very preferred to use something by Mr Cage.

[@jayumble8390]

@@jeffreybennittjones2 Yes, I was a bit hasty here. That makes sense JB. My apologies.

[@jeffreybennittjones2]

@@jayumble8390 No worries. Figuring out the soundtrack to these is probably the hardest part.