On Kawara (1933–2014)

Conceptual artist On Kawara reduces dialogues about the relationships between art and life to their simplest forms. This exhibition includes monochrome canvases that “mark time” in different cities throughout the world; each denotes its date of completion in the language of the country in which it was made, and is accompanied by a cardboard box with a clipping from a local newspaper published the same day. The date paintings double as an archive of life events registered with the utmost objectivity.

This exhibition will be presented in four of the cities in which the artist created the works on view, establishing another link between the mental and physical aspects of time, space, and transposition explored in On Kawara’s art. Presented at SFMOMA as part of the New Work series, the show was organized by the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

No brochure was produced for this exhibition. A catalogue was published by the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in 1991.… (altro)

" Horizontality and Perpendicularity" documents the various places visited by Japanese artist On Kawara through his projects "I GOT UP" and "I WENT ", ongoing projects begun in 1968. "I GOT UP" consists of stamped postcards--stating time, venue, sender, and addressee--sent twice a day by Kawara from cities all over the world to friends and acquaintances. "I WENT" documents the distances covered daily by the artist, marked in photocopies of city maps. "Horizontality and Perpendicularity" covers both process-projects, combining a postcard and a city map for each day. French novelist and theorist Michel Butor contributes with an essay on Kawara's extremely systematic art--which recalls, in its way, Butor's experiments with the "nouveau roman" (or new novel) in the 1950s and 1960s. Beautiful and necessary, "Horizontality and Perpendicularity" is an impressive testament to Kawara's dismantling of the boundaries between art and life.… (altro)

On Kawara: Paintings of 40 Years was published on the occasion of the artist’s third solo exhibition at David Zwirner in 2004, which presented a selection of date paintings, one from each of the past forty years. Also known as the Today series, the artist began making his now signature date paintings in New York City on January 4, 1966. Available in hardcover, this catalogue includes texts by Japanese scientist Shiuji Inomata; French philosopher Jean Luc-Nancy; and Indian spiritual leader Osho.… (altro)