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Home>Yes No Maybe Introduction>Yes No Maybe Cage Introduction>Yes No Maybe Cage 75 Stones

# 

Exhibition Introduction

Note to the ReaderAcknowledgments

IntroductionKeithJohnLeslieSelf-Portrait

IntroductionTouched RedGreenCombinationHigh Green Version 1

Introduction17 Drawings by ThoreauSeven Day Diary (Not Knowing)Changes and DisappearancesWhere R=RyoanjiFireThe Missing Stone 75 StonesEninkaStonesWhere There is Where There

IntroductionAnne ApplebyPia FriesDarren AlmondSusan MiddletonJoel FisherBrad BrownTom Marioni

IntroductionMamma AnderssonSol LeWittFred WilsonRobert BechtleKiki Smith

IntroductionJulie MehretuWayne ThiebaudJockum NordströmTomma AbtsNathan OliveiraChris Ofili

IntroductionPat SteirLaura OwensWayne ThiebaudAmy Sillman

# John Cage, 75 Stones, 1989

John Cage, 75 Stones, 1989
*75 Stones*1989color spitbite aquatint and sugarlift aquatint on smokedpapertop plate: 26 7⁄8 × 35 3⁄4 (68.3 × 90.8)bottom plate: 17 7⁄8 × 35 (45.4 × 88.9)sheet: 54 1⁄8 × 41 (137.5 × 104.1)National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Kathan Brown,1996© John Cage Trust

This print represents a shift in Cage’s method. Having previously relied on chance to make color selections, he composed a palette based on the color of the stones used to make the print. Also, he traced the stones freely with brushes, a technique he had avoided earlier. He did not completely abandon chance: the rocks were selected and positioned using chance calculations. In homage to the fifteen stones in the Zen rock garden at Ryoanji, he began with fifteen stones, which he traced. He made a test print and then, working in increments of fifteen stones, he added rock tracings and made further proofs (in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco). Cage concluded, based on aesthetics alone, that tracing seventy-five stones was just right.

Cage's rocks, selected by chance operations for use in *75 Stones*, 1989. Still image from *John Cage at Work, 1978–1992,*a film in four parts by Kathan Brown, 2013, Courtesy Crown Point Press

Banner image: Detail, John Cage, *Eninka* 29, 1986, burned, smoked, and branded gampi mounted to paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Crown Point Press, 1996, © John Cage Trust

Next: John Cage, *Eninka*, 1986

"Yes, No, Maybe: The Art of Making Decisions," lecture by exhibition curators Judith Brodie and Adam Greenhalgh (audio)Julie Mehretu, artist, in conversation with curator Judith Brodie, Diamonstein-Spielvogel lecture (audio)"An Insider's Perspective," lecture by Kathan Brown, founder of Crown Point Press (audio)

Exhibition tour by curators Judith Brodie and Adam Greenhalgh (audio)

John Cage in the collection of the National Gallery of Art

Crown Point Press prints in the collection of the National Gallery of Art

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