John Cage: Zen Ox-Herding Pictures

by Stephen Addiss, Ray Kass

Uniting fifty never-before-seen watercolor images, this book explores the powerful influence of Zen on the renowned artist and composer’s work. This book brings together fifty never-before-seen watercolor images from the brush of renowned artist and composer John Cage. These pieces were initially considered a by-product of a 1988 Mountain Lake Workshop, test sheets used to experiment with the flow of color from Cage’s brush as he prepared for larger Zen pieces, but authors Stephen Addiss and Ray Kass unite them here to explore the influence of Zen in Cage’s life. They juxtapose the compositions with the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, a series of images used to communicate the essence of Zen for nearly one thousand years. They refer fragments of Cage’s poetry and his many statements about Zen practice, providing a fascinating lens through which the reader can view the Mountain Lake Workshop paintings. Cage’s images seem to become mysterious echoes of the centuries-old Ten Ox-Herding Pictures themselves, images about searching for the path to enlightenment.
50 color, 12 black-and-white illustrations

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exhibition catalog from a fascinating series of poem/paintings by John Cage based on a traditional Zen parable. Steve Addiss & Ray Kass took preparatory paintings that Cage made on brown paper towels, matched them up with fragments of Cage's writings, and created 5 new re-workings of the Ox-herding story. The results are pretty great -- Cage-iness incarnate.

[Erin Tuzuner · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The dance, the magic, in some way, the contours."