River Rocks and Smoke, #1, 4/11/90 1990

John Cage made this watercolour drawing, River Rocks and Smoke #1, in April of 1990. What strikes me is how Cage seems to be feeling his way into the image. There is a lightness and a sense of improvisation, the kind you also find in his music. Look at the smoky texture at the top of the sheet, its like he’s dabbed and dragged the pigment, letting it bleed and fade, capturing the ephemeral quality of smoke itself. Down below, the lines are spare and elegant, like a calligrapher tracing the essence of rocks. There is this tension between intention and chance, control and surrender. I’m thinking about Cy Twombly and his own dialogue with language, line, and accident. Like Twombly, Cage seems to understand that art is not about answers, but about the questions we ask and the spaces we open up.