John Cage, Where R = Ryoanji (7R) 15, 8/198, 10 in. X 19 in

John Cage, New River Watercolor, Series I, #5, 1988, 18 in. X 36 in

It is extremely important to understand that Cage only used chance procedures after a format for a work had been chosen. In organizing the format (i.e., numbering the painting materials and the formal painting procedures), Cage was choosing what questions to ask! In this way, chance was asked to answer specific questions (to make “choices”) about the specific kinds of details that would normally be dictated by individual habits of taste. Cage wanted to avoid those habits in order to discover new ways of looking so as to see and experience the world in new ways.

When he understood his own philosophical and aesthetic ideas in relation to Finster’s convictions about the inherent “visionary” power of the “dementions,” Cage came to an important realization about the collaborative painting process and his own aesthetic ideas: once the format for a series of paintings was chosen, it didn’t matter who held the brush!30 The result would be the expression of something larger than the individual ego/self.

Cage now brought his chance procedures to the workshop with a new sense of opportunity. He decided to do several series of works. In Series I (5 works, each 18 x 36 in.), 15 stones of widely varying sizes would be used in reference to the 15 stones of the Ryoanji Garden and feathers rather than brushes would be used to paint around them. Cage decided that colors and washes should be a mixture of two colors so that they would be somewhat muted. The exact position and length of the washes would be determined by chance. In Series II (13 works, each 26 x 72 in.), 7 or fewer stones would be used in each work with unmixed, bright colors used around the stones and mixed colors for the washes; again, the length and position of the washes were to be determined by chance and feathers instead of brushes would be used.