A John Cage Compendium: Art (Last modified 1 January 2024)
[Untitled]
Description: design of announcement for a recital by William Masselos, collage of newspaper clippings, text in various typefaces and a photograph of Masselos, 43 x 27 cm
Date: 1952
Sources: present location unknown
Literature: none.
[Untitled]
Description: drawing, ink on paper, size unknown
Date: 1954
Sources: New York, estate of Earle Brown
Publication: in Kostelanetz 1970d, illustration 22
Literature: Kostelanetz 1991.
[Untitled]
Description: designs (for advertisments etc.) made while employed by Jack Lenor Larsen, Inc. (sizes unknown)
Date: 1956-1958
Sources: Middletown, Connecticut, Wesleyan University, Olin Library, collection 1000-72, box 8 folder 6-15
Publication: some facsimiles in Kostelanetz 1970d, illustrations 27-28.
[Untitled]
Description: film [contribution] for TV show Gateway # 7
Duration 30 minutes
Date: circa 1967
First broadcast: 18 October 1967
Sources: present location unknown.
[Untitled]
Description: contribution to Museum of Drawers, compiled by Herbert Distel
Date: 1970-1977
Literature: Ginneken 1981.
[Untitled]
Description: design for Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)
Date: 1974
Sources: present location unknown
Publication: Cage 1974DESIGN.
[Untitled]
Description: drawing [self-portrait], size unknown
Date: 1976 or earlier
Publication: facsimile in Britton, B. 1976, 152.
[Untitled]
Description: polaroid picture of Richard Hamilton
Date: 1977 or earlier
Publication: in Hamilton, R. 1977.
[Untitled]
Description: color lithograph, 60 x 90 cm
Date: 1978
Sources: Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press.
[Untitled]
Description: cover drawing for Sounday program
Date: 1977 or 1978
Publication: cover of Benoist 1978.
[Untitled]
Description: drawing, size unknown
Note: made with Lou Harrison and Virgil Thomson
Date: Summer 1982, with Lou Harrison and Virgil Thomson
Publication: in John Cage, Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, Virgil Thomson, Party Pieces. New York [etc.]: Peters, 1982, inner back cover (Peters; 66500).
[Untitled]
Description: six drawings, on separate sheets, with accompanying instructions written on an envelope for combining them
Date: 1982, instructions written 24 June 1982
Dedication: for Pierre Lartigue
Publication: L’avant-scène: ballet/danse no. 10 (September-October), 72.
[Untitled]
Description: cover drawing for Mode 1-2 (records)
Date: 1984
Publication: as cover for records, Mode 1-2.
[Untitled]
Description: installation [empty railway container] for the Biennale de Paris
Date: before 21 March 1985
Shown: 21 March-20 May 1985
Literature: Declercq 1985.
[Untitled]
Description: cover drawing for first issue of journal, Ártics
Date: July 1985
Publication: Ártics [Barcelona] no. 1 (September-October), 1.
[Untitled]
Description: cover graphic for the long-playing record Wergo WER 60151, 1986 [possibly part of Eninka, Fire, HV, Mesostics: Earth, Air, Fire, Water or Ryoku]
Date: before or during 1986
Publication: as cover graphic to the long-playing record Wergo WER 60151, 1986.
[Untitled]
Description: cover drawing for Rossum 1988
Date: 1988.
[Untitled]
Description: drawing for announcement of exhibition and installation in the Espai Poblenou in Barcelona, 16 January-late April 1991
Date: late 1990.
[Untitled]. See River Rocks and Smoke.
9 Stones
Description: color spitbite and aquatint etching on smoked paper, 47 x 59 cm, in an edition of 20 with 3 artist’s proofs
Date: 1989
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Fornel 2019, 573-575; Lewallen 1991.
9 Stones 2
Description: color spitbite and aquatint etching on smoked paper, 59 x 47 cm, in an edition of 20 with at least 2 artist’s proofs
Date: 1989
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Fornel 2019, 573-575; Lewallen 1991.
10 Stones
Description: color spitbite and aquatint etching on smoked paper, 47 x 59 cm, in an edition of 20, with at least 2 artist’s proofs, printed by Marcia Bartholme
Date: 1989
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 109; Fornel 2019, 573-575; Lewallen 1991.
10 Stones 2
Description: color spitbite and aquatint etching on smoked paper, 59 x 47 cm, in an edition of 20 plus 1 artist’s proof, printed by Marcia Bartholme
Date: 1989
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 112; Fornel 2019, 573-575; Lewallen 1991.
11 Stones
Description: color spitbite and aquatint etching on smoked paper, 59 x 47 cm, in an edition of 20 plus 1 artist’s proof
Date: 1989
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Fornel 2019, 573-575; Lewallen 1991; Volk 1995, 14.
11 Stones 2
Description: color spitbite and aquatint etching on smoked paper, 47 x 59 cm, in an edition of 20 with 1 artist’s proof
Date: 1989
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Fornel 2019, 573-575; Lewallen 1991.
17 Drawings by Thoreau
Description: color photo-etching in an edition of 25 with 10 artist’s proofs and 2 trial proofs, each printed in a unique combination of colors by Stephen Thomas and Lilah Toland on Hodomura paper, 64 x 92 cm
Model: Henry David Thoreau, Journal, marginal drawings, passim
Date: 1978; worksheet completed on 9 March 1978; presumably completed September 1978
Sources: Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum (worksheet, 1 leaf)
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Anonymous 1984e; Brown, Kathan 1980, [8], [10]; Brown, Kathan 1982b; Fornel 2019, 530-531; Lewallen 1991; Volk 1995, 10-11.
30 Drawings by Thoreau
Description: 32-color silkscreen on Japanese paper, 77 x 52 cm
Note: with Merce Cunningham
Date: 1974
Sources: Red Hook, New York, John Cage Trust at Bard College
Publication: in Merce Cunningham and John Cage, Jasper Johns, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol: A Portfolio of Seven Prints Recording Collaborations with Merce Cunningham and Dance Company, with an untitled text by Calvin Tomkins. New York: Multiples; Castelli Graphics, 1974, limited edition of 100 portfolios and 10 artist’s proofs, numbered and signed by the artist
Literature: Fornel 2019, 487.
75 Stones
Description: color spitbite aquatint with sugarlift aquatint on smoked paper, 138 x 105 cm, in an edition of 25 plus 1 artist’s proof, printed by Pamela Paulson (includes stones used)
Date: 1989
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 111; Cage/Katz 1990; Fornel 2019, 573-575; Lewallen 1991; Lewallen 2001.
Automobile Tire Print
Note: made with Robert Rauschenberg
Description: black paint on twenty sheets of typewriter paper glued together, 42 x 672 cm
Date: Fall 1953
Literature: Fornel 2019, 480.
Changes and Disappearances
Note: originally entitled Changes
Description: thirty-five related prints; engraving, drypoint and color photo-etching, with shaped plates whose edges are inked, printed on Twinrocker handmade paper, 29 x 56 cm, by Lilah Toland, Hidekatsu Takada and Paul Singdahlsen, each printed in two impressions, with a third impression in eleven cases to accomodate proofs for the artist, the publisher and the printers
Date: 1-12 January 1979; 2-16 January 1980; 15-27 September 1980; 2-17 January 1982
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 1980, [11]; Brown, Kathan 2000, 64-71, 78-82; Cage/Katz 1990; Cage/Kostelanetz 1986; Cage/Raymond and Roberts 1980, 7; Cage/Retallack 1996, 96, 98, 125, 138; D’Harnoncourt 1993; Fornel 2019, 535-540; Kostelanetz 1988b, 186; Lewallen 1991; Toland 1982a.
Changing Installation
Description: instructions for the chance-determined placement and orientation of chairs and of a selection of fifteen out of a source of forty-eight artworks, twelve each by Dove Bradshaw, John Cage, Mary Jean Kenton, and Marsha Skinner, to be changed daily during the exhibition
Date: 1991
First shown: 19 October 1991-16 February 1992
Literature: Belford, L. 2020; Cage 1991aa; Cage/Retallack 1996, 91, 135, 141, 151; Fornel 2015; Fornel 2019, 611-616; Odom 1991.
Chess Pieces
Description: black and white ink over gouache on Masonite, 50 x 50 cm
Date: 1943 or 1944
Note: made for exhibition, The Imagery of Chess (opening 12 December 1944)
Sources: Chicago, Illinois, collection Patrick Shaw
Publication: facsimile in Kostelanetz 1970d, illustration 17, between pp. 78-79
Literature: Fornel 2019, 480; Kostelanetz 1991; Redford 2007.
Chessfilmnoise
Description: instructions for realization of film
Duration: 17 minutes 20 seconds
Date: 25 June 1988 in Middelburg
Realization: filmed 26 June 1988; Frank Scheffer, 26 June-1 July 1988
First shown: 1 July 1988
Sources: Dordrecht, collection Frank Scheffer
Publication: Amsterdam: FS Film en video, film, color
Literature: Fornel 2019, 595-597.
Déka
Description: series of thirty-five related images (color etchings, 28 x 40 cm) on Koko Kiziki paper, 41 x 49 cm, each impression unique
Date: 1987
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 104-105; Fornel 2019, 576-578.
Déreau
Description: thirty-eight related works printed in two impressions each; color photo-etching, engraving, drypoint and aquatint on Japanese paper, 36 x 46 cm; printed by Lilah Toland, Paul Singdahlsen and Marcia Bartholme
Model: Henry David Thoreau, Journal, marginal drawings, passim
Date: 2-17 January 1982
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 13-43, 72-77, 82-83; Fornel 2019, 542-543; Lewallen 1991; Rapko 2014; Rapko 2015; Toland 1982b.
Dramatic Fire
Note: original title Empty Fire
Description: aquatint and embossing on smoked Whatman’s White Paper, 47 x 59 cm, in an edition of 25 (each printing being unique as a consequence of the smoking process)
Date: 1989
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Cage/Retallack 1996, 134; Fornel 2019, 577-578; Lewallen 1991.
Drawings by Thoreau
Description: pencil on paper, 25 x 28 cm (framed)
Date: 1978
Note: New York, collection Francesco Pellizzi.
Edible Drawings
Note: earlier title Edible Paper
Description: series of twelve sheets of handmade paper with macrobiotic ingredients (e.g. bitter melon, snow peas, celery, dried apricots), 30 x 23 cm each
Date: February 1989
Publication: Boston, Massachusetts: Rugg Road Papers and Prints
Literature: Fornel 2019, 589-591; Lewallen 1991; Toale 1992.
Eninka
Description: series of fifty unique smoked and branded monoprints on gampi paper chine collé, 64 x 48 cm each, printed by Marcia Bartholme
Date: 1986
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 100-104; Fornel 2019, 571-572, 583; Lewallen 1991.
Essay Barcelona
Description: etching on Guarro paper, 39 x 48 cm, edition of 60, 10 artist’s proofs, 3 hors commerce
Date: 1991
Publication: Barcelona: Polígrafica Obra Grafica for Fundació Espai Poblenou
Literature: Fornel 2019, 490.
Essay Tokyo
Description: etching on paper, 48 x 64 cm, edition of 40
Date: 1986
Publication: Tokyo: Galerie Watari
Literature: Fornel 2019, 490.
Exquisite Corpse
Description: drawing, size unknown
Note: made with Lou Harrison and Virgil Thomson
Date: Summer 1982
Publication: in John Cage, Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, Virgil Thomson, Party Pieces. New York [etc.]: Peters, 1982, front cover (Peters; 66500).
Fire
Description: series of sixteen unique smoked and branded monotypes, 51 x 30 cm, printed by Peter Pettengill
Date: 2-15 January 1985
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press; facsimile of no. XIII as cover art of Aerial [Washington, D.C.] no. 6-7 (1991)
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 97-100; Fornel 2019, 584-585.
Fire and Stone. See River Rocks and Smoke.
Gelbe Musik
Description: pencil and silk-screen print on paper (mesostic on ‘Gelbe Musik’), 54 x 100 cm, edition of 60, and at least 19 artist’s proofs
Date: 1991
Sources: Berlin, collection Ursula Block and René Block.
Gift
Description: watercolor on smoked mulberry paper, 183 x 92 cm
Dedication: for Jiro Okura
Date: 15 April 1990
Publication: Blacksburg, Virginia: Mountain Lake Workshop
Literature: Fornel 2019, 663.
Global Village 1-36
Description: aquatint etching, diptych on brown smoked paper, 98 x 135 cm, printed by Pamela Paulson, in an edition of 15
Date: 1989
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Fornel 2019, 571-573.
Global Village 37-48
Description: aquatint etching, diptych on gray smoked paper, 91 x 134 cm, printed by Pamela Paulson, in an edition of 15
Date: 1989
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Fornel 2019, 571-573.
Good Morning, Mr. Orwell
Note: made with Joseph Beuys (1921-1986)
Note: made at the request of Nam June Paik
Description: silkscreen on paper, 77 x 57 cm; edition of 250 plus 49 artist’s proofs
Date: 1983
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Fornel 2019, 487-489; Green, J.M. 2020; Silverman, K. 2010, 337.
HV
Note: the title is short for horizontal-vertical
Description: thirty-six monotypes, each 30 x 47 cm
Date: January 1983
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 87-89; Fetterman 1996a, 177; Fornel 2019, 545-546.
HV2
Description: fifteen aquatints printed on handmade Abaca paper, in three impressions each plus at least one trial proof each by Pamela Paulson, 30 x 37 cm each (numbers in the titles of individual prints refer to the number of plates in the print): HV2 10; HV2 14; HV2 14B; HV2 14C; HV2 17A; HV2 17B; HV2 19A; HV2 19B; HV2 19C; HV2 20; HV2 22; HV2 24; HV2 25A; HV2 25B; HV2 6
Date: 8-21 January 1992
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 122-124, 125-140; D’Harnoncourt 1993; Fornel 2019, 546-548.
Medicine Drawings
Description: series of twelve sheets of handmade paper with medicinal plants, 31 x 36 cm each
Date: Fall 1991
Publication: Boston, Massachusetts: Rugg Road Papers and Prints
Literature: Fornel 2019, 590-591; Toale 1992.
Mesostics: Earth, Air, Fire, Water
Description: twelve collage monoprints, 112 x 76 cm each, in an edition of 9
Date: 2-15 January 1985
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Fornel 2019, 567-568.
The Missing Stone
Description: color spitbite aquatint with sugarlift aquatint printed from two plates (46 x 89 cm and 69 x 92 cm) in color on smoked Somerset Textured paper, 138 x 105 cm, in an edition of 25 plus 5 artist’s proofs; trial proof C in a variant edition of 25, printed by Pamela Paulson (includes stones used)
Date: 1989
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 110; Cage/Katz 1990; Fornel 2019, 573-575; Lewallen 1991; Lewallen 2001.
Museumcircle
Note: alternative title Museum Circle
Description: design of exhibition in a museum of a specific town of objects from other museums in the same town
Date: 1990-1991
First shown: 18 July-27 October 1991
Literature: Belford, L. 2020; Bischoff 1991b; Fornel 2015; Fornel 2019, 609-610.
Mushroom Book
Description: portfolio with twenty colored lithographs (ten by Cage and ten by Long), various sizes, in an edition of 75, with various artist’s proofs, made in collaboration with Lois Long and Alexander H. Smith at Hollander’s Workshop, New York; the text is in ten parts
Date: 1971-1972
Publication: Cage 1972d; New York: Hollander’s Workshop, 1972
Literature: Anonymous 1972j; Cage 1973e, x-xi; Fornel 2019, 486-487; Gillott 2018; Smith, A.H. 1982; Walls 2014.
New River Rocks and Smoke
Description: watercolor on smoked rag paper, 259 x 976 cm
Date: 1990
Literature: Fornel 2019, 663; Lewallen 2001.
New River Rocks and Washes
Description: watercolor on smoked rag paper, 260 x 854 cm
Date: 13 April 1990
Literature: Fornel 2019, 563; Lewallen 2001; Runnells 2019.
New River Stones
Description: watercolor on Arches cold pressed paper, 61 x 130 cm
Date: 1983
Publication: Blacksburg, Virginia: Mountain Lake Workshop
Literature: Fornel 2019, 558-559, 659.
New River Watercolors
Description: fifty-two untitled watercolors on different types of paper (parchment, Bee no. 844, Bee cold-pressed, Waterford cold-pressed) in four series: Series I (nos. 1-5), 46 x 92 cm each; Series II (nos. 1-13), 66 x 183 cm each; Series III (nos. 1-25), 92 x 39 cm each; Series IV (nos. 1-12), 67 x 102 cm each; nos. 31-52; fifty preparatory sheets
Date: 3-10 April 1988
Publication: Blacksburg, Virginia: Mountain Lake Workshop
Literature: Addiss and Kass 2009; Brown, Kathan 2000, 105-108; Fornel 2019, 559-562; Kasper 2005; Kass 1988; Lewallen 1991; Lewallen 2001; McGreevy 1989; Volk 1995, 12-13; West 1988.
Not Wanting to Say Anything about Marcel
Description: eight constructions consisting of eight parallel panels of silk screened Rohm and Haas plexiglas (Plexigrams I-VIII), 36 x 51 cm each, the front and rear panels bronze tinted, the six interior panels clear, with images of letters and numbers silk-screened on one side, in black and white and several colors, mounted on a slotted walnut base, 37 x 62 x 2 cm, hand signed and numbered by the artists, stained, sanded and wax finished, as well as two colored lithographs (A and B), 71 x 102 cm each, handprinted on black Fabriano rag paper, A using eight aluminium plates and nine colors, B using eight aluminium plates and eight colors, signed and numbered by the artists in white pencil; printed in collaboration with Calvin Sumsion and with assistance of Clive Coen, Fred Genis, Irwin Hollander, Carl Solway, Wallasse Ting, Marjorie Trenk, under the supervision of Hollander’s Workshop, New York
Dedication: to the memory of Marcel Duchamp
Date: September 1969
Sources: Middletown, Connecticut, Wesleyan University, Olin Library, collection 1000-72, box 10 folder 12-17
Publication: Cincinnati, Ohio: Eye Editions (limited hand printed edition of 125 numbered copies plus 18 roman numeraled artist’s proofs)
Literature: Art in America 1969; Brown, Kathan 2000, 51-54; Cage 1969c; Cage/Finegan, Koppel and Haskell 1969a, 17; Cage and Sumsion 1970; Cage/Katz 1990; Fornel 2008; Fornel 2011; Fornel 2019, 500-510; Hannes 1993; Kostelanetz 1988b, 135-136; Kostelanetz 1991; Mellow 1970; Perloff, M. 1994a; Rose, B. 1970a; Russell, J. 1970; Semin 2005; Solway 2012; Stooss 1991c; Thorman 2002, 94.
On the Surface
Description: thirty-six related etchings printed by Paul Singdahlsen with the assistance of Peter Pettengill; accidental marks printed in color from shaped plates on Farnsworth handmade paper, 47 x 63 cm, two impressions each (includes the scores for making the etchings, graphite on paper, 27 x 67 cm)
Date: 15-27 September 1980 and 2-17 January 1982 in Oakland, California
Sources: Red Hook, New York, John Cage Trust at Bard College
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 82-86; Cage 1981h; D’Harnoncourt 1993; Fornel 2019, 541-542; Lewallen 1991; Singdahlsen 1982.
One11
Description: silent film without subject for a cameraman made with Henning Lohner
Note: may be performed with 103 [Music]
Extent: 17 parts
Duration: 90 minutes
Date: 1987-1988; realized in 1992?
Realization: Van Carlson, director of photography; Henning Lohner, director
First shown: 19 September 1992
Sources: present location unknown (fragments in NYPL JPB 94-24 Folder 889 and Folder 895)
Publication: none
Literature: Cage 1992c; Cage 1992f; Cage 1993d, 202, 204-205; Cage/Lohner 1989, 254-255; Cage/Retallack 1996, 177, 192, 216-217; Fornel 2019, 597-604; Metzger, H.-K. 1992d; Lohner 2001; Lohner 2012; Sanio 1994a.
Please Play or The Mother the Father or the Family
Description: instructions in the form of a mesostic on “pianofortissimo” for making an installation consisting of a pedestal, 71 cm high after it is compressed, made of cut pieces (torn rough) of any material (paper, wood, cloth, metal, foil) and color, the same size and shape as the lid of a concert grand piano, with instrument placed upside down on top of it
Dedication: for Gino di Maggio
Date: 25 December 1989; on exhibit January-February 1990, Milan, Gino di Maggio, also Venice 1990
Literature: Di Maggio, Bonito Oliva, and Lombardi 2009.
The Readymade Boomerang
Description: serigraph printing on paper, 70 x 100 cm
Note: the text printed derives from the first mesostic written for Darmstadt 1990 (Cage 1991e)
Date: 1989
Sources: Berlin, collection Ursula Block and René Block.
River Rocks and Smoke
Note: earlier titles [Untitled] and Fire and Stone
Description: presumably sixty-four works, smoke and watercolor on smoked paper (Bee, Bee hot-pressed, Whatman hot-pressed, Waterford cold-pressed, Arches cold-pressed), in five series and in various sizes (183 x 119 cm, 183 x 64 cm, 180 x 119 cm, 183 x 89 cm, 68 x 101 cm): 4/9/90, nos. 1-7 (9 April 1990); 4/10/90, nos. 1-17, 184 x 122 cm (10 April 1990); 4/11/90, nos. 1-7, 71 x 108 cm (11 April 1990); 4/12/90, nos. 1-12 (12 April); 4/13/90, nos. 1-21, 134 x 39 cm each (13 April 1990)
Date: 9-13 April 1990
Publication: Blacksburg, Virginia: Mountain Lake Workshop
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 107-108; D’Harnoncourt 1993; Fornel 2019, 575-576, 579, 583-584; Kass 1991a; Kass 2001; Volk 1995, 13-14.
Rolywholyover A Circus
Note: title derives from James Joyce, Finnegans Wake; includes Museumcircle
Note: subtitle “A Composition for Museum”
Description: instructions for the realization of a changing exhibition
Date: 1992, unfinished?
First shown: 12 September-28 November 1993
Literature: Belford, L. 2020; Blažeković 1992; Ferguson, R. and Schottlaender 1993; Fornel 2015; Fornel 2019, 617-626; Lazar 1993a; Lazar 1993b; Ryan 2009.
Ryoku
Description: series of thirteen color-etchings (drypoint) by Marcia Bartholme with the assistance of Peter Pettengill on handmade paper, 46 x 61 cm each; edition of 10 and at least 1 artist’s proof as well as several trial proofs (including maps, graphite on 7 sheets of tracing paper, 46 x 61 cm [for #1], as well as copper plates used for printing)
Date: 3-15 January 1985
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 97-99; Fornel 2019, 555-556; Lewallen 1991; Lewallen 2001.
Score without Parts (40 Drawings by Thoreau): Twelve Haiku
Description: color etching, printed by Stephen Thomas and Lilah Toland; hard ground, soft ground, drypoint, engraving, sugar aquatint, photo-etching on Rives BFK, 56 x 77 cm; edition of 25 with 10 artist’s proofs and 3 trial proofs
Model: Henry David Thoreau, Journal, marginal drawings
Date: 1 January 1978-completed in 1978 in Oakland, California
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 1980, [8]-[9]; Brown, Kathan 2000, 55-60; Fornel 2019, 523-524; Lewallen 1991; Lewallen 2001; Toland 1982c.
Seven-Day Diary (Not Knowing)
Description: portfolio of seven etchings with two frontispieces, 32 x 43 cm each, printed on Rives heavyweight buff by Stephen Thomas and Lilah Toland; soft ground etching, hard ground etching, sugar aquatint, drypoint, photo etching, found objects, adn color etching (Day One: hard ground etching, drypoint; Day Two: soft ground etching added; Day Three: sugar aquatint added; Day Four: photo etching added; Day Five: found objects added; Day Six: color etching added; Day Seven: soft ground etching deleted); edition of 25 with 10 artist’s proofs
Date: 2-7 January 1978
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 57-60; Cage 1978k; Cage/White, R. 1978, 2; D’Harnoncourt 1993; Fornel 2019, 524-527; Lewallen 1991.
Signals
Description: thirty-six related etchings, one impression made of each (plus several artist’s proofs); photo-etching, engraving and drypoint; each unique impression together with the copper plates, drawings and other materials used in its production constitutes one individual work; etchings printed on Umbria paper, 33 x 51 cm, by Lilah Toland and David Kelso
Date: 28 August-10 September 1978
Sources: no. 23 (consists of 4 [sketched] drawings, 2 copper plates)
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 1980, [10]-[11]; Brown, Kathan 1982c; Brown, Kathan 2000, 60-63, 78; Cage/Katz 1990; Fornel 2019, 531-533; Lewallen 1991.
Silent Shadows
Description: film
Note: produced with Andrew Schulman
Date: May 1989
Duration: 2 minutes
Sources: Red Hook, New York, John Cage Trust at Bard College
Publication: Boston, Massachusetts: WNEV-TV Studio 7, 1989, TV film, black and white
Realization: 4 May 1989
First broadcast: 29 June 1989
Literature: Kahn, J.P. 1989.
Smoke Weather Stone Weather
Description: thirty-seven unique aquatints with etching on smoked paper printed by Paul Mullowney, 40 x 51 cm each, with ten artist’s proofs
Date: early January 1991
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 113-118; Fornel 2019, 585; Lewallen 1991; Volk 1995, 14.
Steps
Note: subtitled A Composition for a Painting
Description: watercolor and ink on rag paper, 183 x 529 cm
Date: 1989
Literature: Fornel 2019, 662-663; Silverman, K. 2010, 373-374.
Stoperas 1 & 2
Description: instructions for realization of film
Model: John Cage, Europeras 1 & 2, 1985-1987
Duration: circa 4 minutes
Realization: Frank Scheffer, 1987
First presentation: 23 September 1991, Utrecht, Rembrandttheater, Nederlandse Filmdagen
Sources: present location unknown
Publication: Amsterdam: FS Film en video, 1987, film, color, no sound, 4 minutes.
Strings 1-20
Description: 20 colored impressions of inked strings embossed on paper (monotypes) printed by Kermit Oswald, plus master plates, 56 x 77 cm
Date: 13-14 November 1980
Publication: in 33rd Annual Contemporary American Art Exhibition: Ideas from Individual Expressions and Marks: Prints of Non-Printmakers: November 18, 1988-January 1, 1989, Wilson Gallery and Hall Gallery, Alumni Memorial Building, Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 5
Literature: Fornel 2019, 512-513, 515-516.
Strings 1-62
Description: 62 colored impressions of inked strings embossed on paper (monotypes) printed by Kermit Oswald, plus master plates, 56 x 77 cm
Date: 13-14 November 1980
Publication: in 33rd Annual Contemporary American Art Exhibition: Ideas from Individual Expressions and Marks: Prints of Non-Printmakers: November 18, 1988-January 1, 1989, Wilson Gallery and Hall Gallery, Alumni Memorial Building, Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 5
Literature: Fornel 2019, 512-513, 515-516.
The Sun
Description: silent film documenting the construction (Part I) and display (Part II) of Richard Lippold’s wire sculpture, The Sun, Variation within a Sphere No. 10 (1953-1956)
Duration: 14 minutes (of originally planned 20 minutes)
Dedication: for Richard Lippold
Date: August 1956, unfinished
Realization: John Cage and Richard Lippold; Part I edited by Cage using footage filmed by John Schiff; Part II unfinished, edited by an unknown editor; restored by Center for Visual Music (Cindy Keefer) in association with The John Cage Trust, with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation
First broadcast: restored version released 26 September 2013
Sources: Los Angeles, California, Getty Center, Getty Research Institute, 2659-196 and 2005.M.4; Red Hook, New York, John Cage Trust at Bard College
Publication: Los Angeles, California: Center for Visual Music
Literature: Brown, R.H. 2012b; Brown, R.H. 2019; Swed 2013; Ting and Bouza 2014.
Urban Landscape. See Where There Is Where There.
Variations
Description: series of forty-four monotypes with branding on smoked paper, approximately 23 x 28 cm each, printed by Marcia Bartholme
Date: 1987
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Fornel 2019, 585-587, 660.
Variations II
Description: series of thirty-six monotypes and branding on smoked Roma Fuido Reni paper, 66 x 49 cm each, printed by Paul Mullowney
Date: 1991
Publication: Annandale-on-Hudson: Bard College
Literature: Cage/Retallack 1996, 116-117, 120; Fornel 2019, 579-580; Volk 1995, 14.
Variations III
Description: series of fifty-seven monotypes; branding on smoked grey Roma paper (Tiziano and Del Sarto), variable between 45-49 x 66-67 cm, printed by Pamela Paulson
Date: January 1992
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Cage/Retallack 1996, 117, 119, 120; Fornel 2019, 580-581; Volk 1995, 14.
Vorticella
Description: watercolor on Saunders rag paper, 77 x 56 cm
Dedication: for Miles and Ruth Horton
Date: 1988
Publication: none
Literature: Fornel 2019, 660.
Wagner’s Ring
Description: instructions for realization of film
Model: Richard Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen
Duration: 3 minutes and 50 seconds
Date: prior to 15 November 1987
Realization: Frank Scheffer, 1987
Sources: none?
Publication: Amsterdam: FS Film en video, 1987, film, color, no sound, 4 minutes.
Weather-ed
Description: color photo-etching with four plates, 68 x 41 cm, in an edition of 25
Dedication: for Henning Lohner
Date: January 1983
Publication: Oakland, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Fornel 2019, 516-517.
Weather-ed II
Description: colorplate-etchings using four colors on Simili Japon paper, 66 x 22 cm each, edition of 50 with at least 4 artist’s proofs, printed by Coracle Press, London (currently Clonmel, Tipperary, Ireland)
Date: 1984
Publication: Edinburgh: Fruitmarket Gallery.
Literature: Fornel 2019, 659.
Weather-ed I-XII
Description: twelve color photographs made by Paul Barton of twelve weathered images on the Siegel Cooper Building, New York, 68 x 41 cm
Date: prior to or during 1983
Publication: Cage 1983j, between pages 22-23, 38-39, 102-103, 118-119, 158-159, 174-175
Literature: Cage 1983b, x; Lewallen 1991.
WGBH-TV
Description: film
Note: response to a request by Eva Smerchek for an object for a charity auction
Medium: composer and technicians (directions for realization of a television film)
Duration: 30 minutes
Dedication: for Nam June Paik
Date: between 11-15 September 1971 in New York and in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Realization: Nam June Paik and John Cage, fall 1971
First broadcast: 11 September 1971, Boston, Massachusetts, WGBH-TV
Sources: Red Hook, New York, John Cage Trust at Bard College
Publication: New York: Henmar Press, 1971 (Peters; 6808) (Score); New York: Henmar Press, 1971 (Peters; 6808a) (16 mm film, black and white)
Literature: Cage/Charles 1976, 193n1; Fetterman 1996a, 93-94.
Where Is the War
Description: object with plexiglas (a small and a large version seem to exist)
Date: 1985
Sources: Berlin, collection Ursula Block and René Block
Literature: Fornel 2019, 489-490.
Where R = Ryoanji
Description: eight drypoints, 24 x 60 cm, printed in an edition of 25 each: 2R + 13-14 (plus at least 3 artist’s proofs); R2-1; R2-2; R2-3; 2R + B 4/4; (R), R; (R3); R3 (plus at least 3 artist’s proofs and 1 trial proof)
Note: each ‘R’ stands for fifteen rocks (chance-selected out of a collection of sixteen) used to draw around with a drypoint line several times; in 2R + 13-14 Cage drew around two rocks each fifteen times, then drew thirteen rocks each fourteen times; in R2-1, R2-2, and R2-3, Cage drew 15 squared, 225 times on each plate; R to the third power entails 3375 drawings; R2-1 as cover graph of Cage 1983LIVRE
Date: January-before May 1983 in Oakland, California, Crown Point Press and New York
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 89-96; Fornel 2019, 553-554; Lewallen 1991; Lewallen 2001; Revill 1992, 367; Steinbaum 1986, 16.
Where R = Ryoanji
Description: 170 drawings, pencil on handmade Japanese paper, including: (4R)/4 and R2/17, both 23 x 49 cm, and (9/R)/6 and 11R/7, both 26 x 49 cm (1983); 3R/5, size unknown; (R)/12, 23 x 49 cm (Summer 1983); (2R)/12, 23 x 49 cm (June 1983); (R2)/9 and (4R/7), 23 x 49 cm, and (2R)/1, 26 x 49 cm (July 1983); (R)/2, 23 x 49 cm, (2/R)/6 and (R)/7, both 26 x 49 cm (August 1983); 5R/7, R2/1, 14R/2, and 6R/10, all 26 x 21 cm (1984); 3R/3 (August 1984); 12R/2, 23 x 49 cm (1984); 2R/10 and 8R/14 (May 1987); 2R/9, 3R/12, 4R/2, and 12R/6, 26 x 49 cm each (June 1987); 2R/6 (July 1987); R/17, 26 x 49 cm, R/10, 26 x 49 cm (February 1988); R/1, R/2, R8 and R/16, all 26 x 49 cm (March 1990); R/3, R/5, R/6, and R/16, 26 x 49 cm each (December 1990); (R/5) and R/14 (1991); 3R/17, R8/15, R3/17 and 13R/5, both 26 x 49 cm (1992)
Date: Summer 1983 (5, 6) and see listing above
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 94-97; Fornel 2019, 556-557; Hildebrandt, T. 2012; Kaak and Thierolf 1997; Kasper 2005; Roeder 1985; Volk 1995, 11; Thierolf 2013.
Where There Is Where There – Urban Landscape
Note: previously (1987) titled Where There Is Where There
Description: series of forty-eight related images, color aquatint etching and smoke resist flatbite, 59 x 77 cm, each impression unique
Date: 1987; altered 1989
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Cage/Retallack 1996, 114-116, 118, 120; Fornel 2019, 578-579.
Wild Edible Drawings
Description: suite of twelve handmade papers from edible components of twenty-seven plants (including mulberry, burdock, hibiscus stems, barley, clover, milkweed, cattail, saffron, pokeweed, and hijiki), 44 x 31 cm each, in boxed portfolio; edition of 6
Date: August 1990
Publication: Boston, Massachusetts: Rugg Road Papers and Prints with Beverly Plummer
Literature: Fornel 2019, 590-591; Giuliano 1990; Lewallen 1991, 65; Powell, P. 1991, 13; Toale 1992.
Without Horizon
Description: fifty-seven related unique prints, drypoint and etching, with aquatint, on hand-smoked paper, 19 x 22 cm each, printed by Pamela Paulson
Date: 8-23 January 1992 (or earlier)
Publication: San Francisco, California: Crown Point Press
Literature: Brown, Kathan 2000, 117-122; Cage/Corbett 1992; Cage/Retallack 1996, 129-132; Fornel 2019, 581-582.