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Exhibition Introduction

Note to the Reader
Acknowledgments

Introduction
Keith
John
Leslie
Self-Portrait

Introduction
Touched Red
Green
Combination
High Green Version 1

Introduction
17 Drawings by Thoreau
Seven Day Diary (Not Knowing)
Changes and Disappearances
Where R=Ryoanji
Fire
The Missing Stone
75 Stones
Eninka
Stones
Where There is Where There

Introduction
Anne Appleby
Pia Fries
Darren Almond
Susan Middleton
Joel Fisher
Brad Brown
Tom Marioni

Introduction
Mamma Andersson
Sol LeWitt
Fred Wilson
Robert Bechtle
Kiki Smith

Introduction
Julie Mehretu
Wayne Thiebaud
Jockum Nordström
Tomma Abts
Nathan Oliveira
Chris Ofili

Introduction
Pat Steir
Laura Owens
Wayne Thiebaud
Amy Sillman

John Cage, Fire, 1985

John Cage, Fire, 1985

Fire 9
1985
burned, smoked, and branded Japanese paper
sheet: 20 1⁄4 × 11 3⁄4 (51.4 × 29.9)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Kathan Brown,
2001
© John Cage Trust

Fire 9 was made by simultaneously running burning newspaper and a damp sheet of paper through a printing press, thereby fixing a unique imprint of fire — an unpredictable, ephemeral, and volatile element. Heated teapots, their temperature and position governed by chance calculations, were then used to brand the paper with rings.

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John Cage burning newspapers on the press bed at Crown Point Press, 1992, photograph by Kathan Brown, 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, The Missing Stone, 1989

"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