Artwork Spotlight - John Cage

John Cage, “Not Wanting to Say Anything about Marcel”, 1969

Imagine finding your seat for a concert–you wait patiently with fellow audience members as the orchestra tunes its instruments. You anticipate the first notes as the pianist finally takes his seat, and then . . . nothing! Such was the scene when John Cage’s composition 4’33” was first performed in 1952 in a concert hall in Woodstock, New York. Fed up with the ubiquitous Muzak, which proliferated in public spaces in the post-war years, and with the aim of drawing attention to the silence–or rather, the ambient noise–that becomes perceptible only when you listen for it, Cage created a composition that would exist only in the random sounds of that particular place and time.

Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel was Cage’s first work of visual art. Although he is well-known for his avant-garde musical compositions, he was also involved in the evolution of modern dance (with his partner, Merce Cunningham) and was close friends with major figures in the visual art world, including Peggy Guggenheim, Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock and Marcel Duchamp, to name a few.

When Duchamp (famous for his “Readymades” and his contributions to Dada and the avant-garde) died in 1968, Cage and his close friend Jasper Johns were approached by a patron of the arts who suggested Duchamp’s passing might be a catalyst for creating new works in homage to the art giant. Johns was so saddened by the loss that he responded, “I don’t want to say anything about Marcel.” But Cage was inspired, and proceeded to create this work and name it for the sentiment of his friend: Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel.

Created in 1969, this work is dedicated to the idea of randomness in art. Cage wanted to remove as much of his own artistic influence as possible. The work consists of eight “Plexigrams”, silkscreens printed on acrylic in a wood base. The Plexigrams are printed with partial words, phrases, and images which were selected randomly using a dictionary, coin tosses, and the I Ching. Most of the artistic decisions to be made in the work were left up to these “chance operations”: the position, font and size of the text, which letters would be missing from words, which images would be used, etc. The Plexigrams stand vertically in the base allowing the viewer to look through the clear panels and experience the multi-layered random arrangement of words and images floating in space. By leaving out parts of words and images, Cage wanted to engage the human brain’s tendency to “fill in the blanks.” For example, which word will you think of first when you see an M, an A, and an L in proximity? The response is individual, and therefore, the viewer makes some decisions about how they experience the piece. The Plexigrams can be rearranged as the viewer sees fit, furthering the individual experience. Rearranging the plates should, of course, be done at random!

Similar works appear in the permanent collections of MOMA, Crystal Bridges, Art Gallery of NSW and Norton Simon Museum, among others. Arnoult Fine Art Consulting is pleased to offer this historically significant work at an approachable price point. The sculpture is accompanied by the original booklet with Cage’s notations, a transparency, and the original storage box.

Learn more in this presentation.

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video credit: Harwood Taylor