A “heroic” biography of John Cage and his “awakening through Zen Buddhism”—“a kind of love story” about a brilliant American pioneer of the creative arts who transformed himself and his culture (The New York Times) Composer John Cage sought the silence of a mind at peace with itself—and found it in Zen Buddhism, a spiritual path that changed both his music and his view of the universe. “Remarkably researched, exquisitely written,” Where the Heart Beats weaves together “a great many threads of cultural history” (Maria Popova, Brain Pickings) to illuminate Cage’s struggle to accept himself and his relationship with choreographer Merce Cunningham. Freed to be his own man, Cage originated exciting experiments that set him at the epicenter of a new avant-garde forming in the 1950s. Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Allan Kaprow, Morton Feldman, and Leo Castelli were among those influenced by his ‘teaching’ and ‘preaching.’ Where the Heart Beats shows the blossoming of Zen in the very heart of American culture.

Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists

Larson, Kay

Humor & Entertainment

Penguin??Books

This rare and vintage book is a perfect addition to any bibliophile's collection

Charles H. Carpenter, Jr: The Odyssey of a Collector

Carpenter, Charles H.

Carnegie Museum of Art

Arts & Photography

Carnegie Museum Store

From the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, this book focuses on the photography of Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment

Joselit, David

Kardon, Janet

MAPPLETHORPE, Robert

Photography & Video

Inst of Contemporary Art

We first started writing our story for those who have not yet arrived on the scene, unborn generations who are destined to make their appearance in our family and in the family of man. Our aim was to narrow the gap for those who were too little or not even in this world, to have known or appreciated Grandpa Chuck.Then we thought about a wider audience - our close friends and beyond. Grandpa's legacy to us all is about faith, love, courage and fortitude in accepting the vicissitudes of life and mysteries of death. Perhaps our readers, especially children and youth who are experiencing the sudden or gradual loss of someone they cherish dearly, will discover between these pages a gentle ray of hope. What could be brighter or more comforting than to imagine our loved ones that have passed from us, immersed in an ocean of light?

Ocean of Light: A Story About Grandpa Chuck

Biographies & Memoirs

AuthorHouse

A “heroic” and “fascinating” biography of John Cage showing how his work, and that of countless American artists, was transformed by Zen Buddhism (The New York Times) Where the Heart Beats is the story of the tremendous changes sweeping through American culture following the Second World War, a time when the arts in America broke away from centuries of tradition and reinvented themselves. Painters converted their canvases into arenas for action and gesture, dancers embraced pure movement over narrative, performance artists staged “happenings” in which anything could happen, poets wrote words determined by chance. In this tumultuous period, a composer of experimental music began a spiritual quest to know himself better. His earnest inquiry touched thousands of lives and created controversies that are ongoing. He devised unique concerts—consisting of notes chosen by chance, randomly tuned radios, and silence—in the service of his absolute conviction that art and life are one inseparable truth, a seamless web of creation divided only by illusory thoughts. What empowered John Cage to compose his incredible music—and what allowed him to inspire tremendous transformations in the lives of his fellow artists—was Cage’s improbable conversion to Zen Buddhism. This is the story of how Zen saved Cage from himself. Where the Heart Beats is the first book to address the phenomenal importance of Zen Buddhism to John Cage’s life and to the artistic avant-garde of the 1950s and 1960s. Zen’s power to transform Cage’s troubled mind—by showing him his own enlightened nature—liberated Cage from an acute personal crisis that threatened everything he most deeply cared abouthis life, his music, and his relationship with his life partner, Merce Cunningham. Caught in a society that rejected his art, his politics, and his sexual orientation, Cage was transformed by Zen from an overlooked and marginal musician into the absolute epicenter of the avant-garde. Using Cage’s life as a starting point, Where the Heart Beats looks beyond to the individuals Cage influenced and the art he inspired. His creative genius touched Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Alan Kaprow, Morton Feldman, and Leo Castelli, who all went on to revolutionize their respective disciplines. As Cage’s story progresses, as his collaborators’ trajectories unfurl, Where the Heart Beats shows the blossoming of Zen in the very heart of American culture.

Penguin Press

Jennifer Bartlett

Locks Art Publications

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Books by Larson, Kay