Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - Portrait of John Cage / Portrait of the School of Cage, Caged; Published in "Fluxus cc V TRE (Fluxus Newspaper)", no.2 (February 1964)

Preview image of work. offset lithograph on paper, p.4, Portrait of John Cage / Portrait of the School of Cage, Caged; Published in "Fluxus cc V TRE (Fluxus Newspaper)", no.2 (February 1964) 27433

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Portrait of John Cage / Portrait of the School of Cage, Caged; Published in "Fluxus cc V TRE (Fluxus Newspaper)", no.2 (February 1964)

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Artists

Walter De Maria (Albany, CA, 10/1/1935 - 7/25/2013, Los Angeles, CA); Fluxus [New York] ; George Maciunas (Kaunas, Lithuania, 11/8/1931 - 5/9/1978, Boston, MA)

Title

Portrait of John Cage / Portrait of the School of Cage, Caged; Published in "Fluxus cc V TRE (Fluxus Newspaper)", no.2 (February 1964)

Creation Date

1962

Century

mid-20th century

Dimensions

22 3/4 x 18 in. (57.79 x 45.72 cm)

Object Type

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

offset lithograph on paper, p.4

Credit Line

Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift 2008, 2398.2008.x1-.x6, Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, New York, © 2016 Estate of Walter De Maria

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Beginning in 1961, Walter De Maria created a series of portraits of the American musician, composer, and writer John Cage. The first, a wooden sculpture titled "Statue of John Cage" (1961), was destroyed by the artist not long after it was first exhibited in 1963. A pair of drawings, "Portrait of John Cage" and "Portrait of the School of Cage, Caged", from 1962 was published in the "Fluxus Newspaper" in 1964. And in 1965, De Maria created the stainless steel piece "Cage," also on view in this gallery, in an edition of two. De Maria’s representations of Cage can read as a pun on the subject’s name, in the spirit of the artist Marcel Duchamp, or an acknowledgement of the composer’s critical contribution to music. Having described Cage as “interested in all of the freer forms of modern music” in a 1972 interview, De Maria points to the ironic nature of his portrayal; “When I made my statue of John Cage, I think it was partly a recognition of the fact that Cage may have been caging a lot of people”. Also on display are copies of a photograph of the original version of the work, "Statue of John Cage," and a letter De Maria wrote to the composer at the time of its first exhibition, reproduced, as seen here, in Richard Kostelanetz, ed., "John Cage" (New York: Praeger, 1970).