The Sight of Silence: John Cage's Complete Watercolors Hardcover – January 1, 2011

basically, this volume is everything you need to know to embrace zen consciousness, if you know where and how to perceive it. cage is, in every way, an art master. perhaps best known as a composer and poet, here, in the loving and talented collaboration of Ray Kass, Cage soars with unique vision and visual intellect. They render zen clear and accessible. As a painter soaked in inks, watercolor and oils for 50 years, beating myself senseless against the Art Machine, this book offers clarity of insight and Hope.

This is a great book that records day by day a workshop that Cage attended to print and paint some watercolors with very specific details. How the paintings are printed here is not in a big format, but they actually give you a lot of detail about the process of their origin.It comes with a DVD that I haven't checked yet. Nonetheless, a great oportunity to check out this aspect of this complete artist.

I am a watercolorist and Sumi-e painter--hoped to get some inspiration--but don't know what I expected--after all he is a minimalist!

Good insights into John Cage's thought process. Important to contemporary musicians .Would be useful in teaching at high school or college level.

An extremely complex man with a simple plan for engaging the world through his method of illustration. Very interesting. very engaging.

Great book - if you know Cage's watercolors already or don't.

The Sight of Silence: John Cage's Complete WatercolorsRay Kass. Taubman Museum of Art (Univ. of Virginia, dist.), $34.95 (144p) ISBN 9780615401805Composer and performer John Cage (1912-1992), the epitome of the avant-garde artist, expanded from music composition into the world of visual art, and employed the philosophy of non-intention. His use of indeterminate notation was his greatest contribution to music and he carried it over into his watercolors. Cage took to the conceptual art movement with ease, incorporating Zen painting and calligraphy. Use of the I-Ching helped him avoid controlling the form or content of his work, though perhaps the fact of using a tool to make choices eliminates the very essence of chance that he was seeking. Cage's visual works began with etchings called Where R=Ryoanji, a series of outlines of stones, inspired by the Ryoanji Zen garden in Kyoto. He continued to work on this project at Virginia's Mountain Lake Workshop in Virginia, founded and directed by Kass. Cage produced his series, River Rocks and Smoke, using papers burned and pressed, then painted with various washes, and finally outlined using local stones from the New River. His depth of purpose is evident here, as is Cage's incredible talent. (July)Reviewed on: 10/31/2011