Bartalos

This Friday I’ll be giving a talk titled “Visual Indeterminacy: Cage, Duchamp, and the Plexigrams” at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University. My presentation will center around John Cage’s series of eight ‘plexigrams’ collectively titled Not Wanting to Say Anything about Marcel currently on view at the Cantor. It is one of Cage’s earliest graphic works, created in 1969 in the memory of his colleague Marcel Duchamp.

I’ll be discussing the relationship between Cage and Duchamp, how and why Cage applied his method of indeterminacy to create to the artwork, and the historical importance of its production. I’ll also propose that while Cage wasn’t interested in lyricism, sentiment and ‘meaning’ in art, the plexigrams can be read as a visual poem to a dear friend.

The talk is a part of the Spotlight on Art series presented by Stanford’s Department of Art and Art History on the second Friday of each month during the academic year. It will take place alongside the artwork in the Cantor’s Lynn Krywick Gibbons Gallery on November 9 at 2 P.M.

The Cantor Arts Center is just off Palm Drive at Museum Way and Lomita Drive, Stanford CA. Not Wanting to Say Anything about Marcel is on view through November 11.