Xenia Cage

Xenia Cage (born Xenia Andreyevna Kashevaroff, August 15, 1913 – September 26, 1995) was an American painter, sculptor, bookbinder, conservator, and musician notable for her surrealist mobiles and artistic collaborations.

Cage’s work has been described as on the “cutting edge of surrealism in sculpture” for her time. From 1935 to 1945, Cage was married to the musician and composer John Cage and performed in his percussion ensemble throughout their marriage. Cage is believed to have been the "female performer" who smashed a lime ricky bottle into a can of broken glass at the culmination of John Cage's Construction in Metal. In 1943, Cage exhibited an abstract mobile in Peggy Guggenheim's show Exhibition by 31 Women at the Art of This Century gallery in New York. The next year, Cage had a solo exhibition of her mobiles at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. Cage notably collaborated with artists Joseph Cornell and Marcel Duchamp as a bookbinder, and designed a chess table in tandem with a set created by Max Ernst. Cage also worked as a conservator at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York.

Xenia was the daughter of Very Reverend Andrew Petrovich Kashevarof and Marfa E. "Marta" Kashevarof (Bolshanin), and sister of Cyril Andrew Kashevarof, Sr, Nina Kashevarof, Mary Sasha Andrevna Calvin (Kashevarof, Lydia Brewer (Kashevarof), Nadja Vestal Triplet (Kashevaroff)and Natalya (Kashevarof) Lovejoy. She is the great-aunt of Alex Kashevaroff (composer and musician), and great-great-aunt of David Kashevaroff (film editor). Xenia's grave is in Alaska, USA