Musical Maverick

John Cage, the American avant-garde composer who incorporated unconventional instruments and randomness into his musical works, was born on this day in 1912.

Orchestra, created in 1926, parallels Cage's offbeat music. This pochoir, a type of stencil print, was based on his earlier collages of the "Revolving Doors" series.

Man Ray's experimentation with spectrum-colored papers provided not only the inspiration but also the modus operandi for an entire series of collages from this period, each of which was supposed to serve as a preparatory study for a larger work in oil.

The series consisted of ten separate collages, the individual panels of which were prepared from carefully cut pieces of construction paper pasted onto white cardboard.

For their first installation at the Daniel Gallery in 1919, each collage was separately framed and hinged onto a rotating support, so that the entire ensemble could be spun around like a revolving door, hence Man Ray's title The Revolving Doors.

Source: Merry Foresta, et. al. Perpetual Motif: the Art of Man Ray (Washington, D.C. and New York: Abbeville Press, in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1988).

Pictured: Man Ray, 1890 USA–1976 France, Orchestra, from the portfolio Revolving Doors, 1926, pochoir on paper, 22 x 14 7/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.