This volume is based on a rich collection of photographs of the American composer and theorist, taken between 1977 and 1991—mostly by Roberto Masotti and, for the remainder, by the Lelli e Masotti Archive—during events held in Italy and abroad, as well as at his home in New York.

John Cage embodies such a multiplicity of aspects that it can be difficult to find one’s bearings. For those unfamiliar with the variety of paths his thought pursued—paths that made him one of the most influential and decisive figures of the twentieth century—it might be tempting, though mistaken, to see him as merely an unconventional character, an eclectic, an “inventor” (as Schoenberg once called him), thereby reducing his personality to a quip, endlessly repeated.

His compositional and creative work in the musical field proved increasingly important and remains deeply infused with his thought, as well as his vision of art and life. His aesthetics and philosophy are open to the world—especially the world of sound—as well as to nature and chance.

His journey began with happenings, which transgressed the boundaries of theatre, and with invention, such as the prepared piano. Cage continued to nurture and transform the idea of art and music until the very end, without pause. The coexistence of silence and noise, the contrast between them, and—within visual processes—the transparency and lightness of minimal, intimately poetic gestures are themes and traits that mark a path rich with turning points and places of no return.