John Cage

American composer and artist John Cage (1912–1992), also represented by works on paper, studied composition with Richard Bühlig, Henry Cowell, Adolph Weiss and Arnold Schönberg. From 1938, he accompanied Bonnie Bird’s modern dance class on the piano at the Cornish School of Allied Arts. In the 1960s, he taught, among other places, at Black Mountain College and the New School for Social Research.

His musical approach seeks to incorporate noises and to organise composition according to time rather than cadence. He experimented with chance, using the Yi Jing, among other things, as a decision-making tool in his work. This questioning of musical conventions finds a notable example in 4′33″, a piece in which the performer remains silent for the duration indicated by the title.

In the pencil drawing Where R = Ryoanji 13R/10, dated 1987 and measuring 25.4 × 48.4 cm, the title and number are inscribed on the left; the signature and date “John Cage 5/87” appear at the bottom right. According to the sale notice, the sheet comprises 195 circles drawn with ten different pencils. The same notice links the Ryoanji series to the rock garden of the temple of the same name in Kyoto, and states that Cage continued it until his death in 1992. The drawing is listed in the catalogue of the exhibition John Cage. Scores, Prints, Drawings, Watercolours, held in Zurich and Erlangen in 1991. The online collections of the Art Institute of Chicago also list a lithograph of Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel, dated 1969, and another drawing from the Ryoanji series, made in 1987.

Works recorded at auction