The Art of the Box: Structure and Chance

The box, or cube, figures prominently in art of the last century--and perhaps throughout all time.  In a recent trip to NYC, I saw an assortment of boxes as buildings and windows, their shape perhaps more evident in contrast to the sparkling snow that provided the backdrop. 

In fact, a city is essentially boxes stacked on top of one another or in close proximity.

Niles Spencer, City Walls

Charles Sheeler
Bucks County Barn

Visiting MOMA, I experienced two art exhibitions, also in close proximity. First, there was "American Modern, Hopper to O'Keefe," where both the rural and urban aesthetic often contained box-like structures.  

Edward Hopper, Box Factory, Gloucester (1928)

My friend and I also discovered: "There Will Never Be Silence: Scoring John Cage's 4'33." Its title comes from a letter Cage wrote in 1954 about the music of silence. In this era, artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, Yoko Ono, and Barnett Newman explored contextual limits. They moved within and outside of the box.

John Cage sought otherworldliness through Buddhism, chess, long walks, and composing music of chance and silence. It was just by chance that we encountered his work as the exhibition was scheduled to close the preceding day.

Jean (Hans) Arp
Collage with Squares
Arranged according to the Laws of Chance,