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Home>Yes No Maybe Introduction>Yes No Maybe Cage Introduction>Yes No Maybe Cage Changes and Disappearances

# 

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, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
*Changes and Disappearances 4*1979color engraving, drypoint, and photo-etching on blue-graypapersheet: 11 7⁄16 × 21 3⁄8 (29.1 × 54.3)Kevin Parker© John Cage Trust

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
Detail, *Changes and Disappearances 4*1979color engraving, drypoint, and photo-etching on blue-graypapersheet: 11 7⁄16 × 21 3⁄8 (29.1 × 54.3)Kevin Parker© John Cage Trust

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
*Changes and Disappearances 12*1980color engraving, drypoint, and photo-etching on blue-graypapersheet: 11 7⁄16 × 21 3⁄8 (29.1 × 54.3)Tom Marioni© John Cage Trust

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
Detail, *Changes and Disappearances 12*1980color engraving, drypoint, and photo-etching on blue-graypapersheet: 11 7⁄16 × 21 3⁄8 (29.1 × 54.3)Tom Marioni© John Cage Trust

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
*Changes and Disappearances 31*1982color engraving, drypoint, and photo-etching on blue-graypapersheet: 11 3⁄8 × 21 3⁄8 (29 × 54.3)Kevin Parker© John Cage Trust

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
Detail, *Changes and Disappearances 31*1982color engraving, drypoint, and photo-etching on blue-graypapersheet: 11 3⁄8 × 21 3⁄8 (29 × 54.3)Kevin Parker© John Cage Trust

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
*Changes and Disappearances 32*1982color engraving, drypoint, and photo-etching on blue-graypapersheet: 11 1⁄4 × 21 3⁄8 (28.6 × 55.3)National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Kathan Brown,1996© John Cage Trust

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
Detail, *Changes and Disappearances 32*1982color engraving, drypoint, and photo-etching on blue-graypapersheet: 11 1⁄4 × 21 3⁄8 (28.6 × 55.3)National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Kathan Brown,1996© John Cage Trust

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
Score for *Changes and Disappearances 32*1982graphite on paper10 3/4 x 26 (27.3 x 66)Kathan Brown© John Cage Trust

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
Detail, Score for *Changes and Disappearances 32*1982graphite on paper10 3/4 x 26 (27.3 x 66)Kathan Brown© John Cage Trust

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
Map for *Changes and Disappearances 32*Run 11982graphite on tracing papersheet: 19 × 24 (48.3 × 61)National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Kathan Brown,2012© John Cage Trust

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
Map for *Changes and Disappearances 32*Run 31982graphite on tracing papersheet: 19 × 24 (48.3 × 61)National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Kathan Brown,2012© John Cage Trust

John Cage, Changes and Disappearances, 1979–1982
Map for *Changes and Disappearances 32*Run 61982graphite on tracing papersheet: 19 × 24 (48.3 × 61)National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Kathan Brown,2012© John Cage Trust

*Changes and Disappearances*is a series of thirty-five unique abstract prints composed of the most basic formal components: solid curved lines, and solid and dashed straight lines. Cage also included fragments of images appropriated from sketches in Henry David Thoreau’s journals. All of the prints were made from irregularly shaped plates selected from a pool of sixty-six. Their quantity, selection, orientation, location, and inking were all determined by chance. Plates could be selected for reuse in multiple prints and new marks could be added so that the prints evolved and became more complex over the course of the series. One of Cage’s key beliefs was that “the responsibility of the artist is to imitate nature in her manner of operations.” Here Cage mirrored nature’s complex, chance-dependent evolutionary patterns and seemingly infinite possibilities.

John Cage with a map for *Changes and Disappearances 32*, 1982, photographby Colin McRae, Courtesy Crown PointPress

The *Changes and Disappearances*series is Cage’s most complicated print project. Every mark, color, and image resulted from questions answered by numerous chance operations. Cage recorded every result on a score devoted to each print. He then created maps, or printing guides, by tracing the placement of each plate and annotating the tracings with every mark, line, image, and color to be used. *Changes and Disappearances 32* was printed using thirty-six unique plates and required eleven maps (Cage is working on one in the photograph at left). The print is composed of eighty-five inked plate edges and 177 inked marks for a total of 262 distinct colored lines and shapes. If this sounds complicated, it’s because it is.

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, *Where R=Ryoanji*, 1983

"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

Press release

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