On Kawara — À propos — Slash Paris

Over more than five decades, On Kawara (29,771 days) developed a distinct and highly nuanced form of artistic expression that engaged with chronological time and its function as a measure of human existence. A key figure in the conceptual art movement that emerged in New York in the 1960s, the artist created a significant body of work organized into discrete series that together form a meditative examination of time and place. At once specific and universal, rigorous and expansive, Kawara’s work encompasses the simultaneous mundanity and vastness of lived experience, and allows for a multiplicity of meanings.

Born in Kariya, Japan, Kawara moved to Tokyo in 1951 immediately after graduating from high school, where he established himself as a key member of the rising postwar avant-garde. Kawara left Japan in 1959, moving to Mexico City for several years, during which time he studied modern art and traveled around the country—a period that proved formative in the development of his later work. Between 1962 and 1964, he lived between New York and Paris, before settling permanently in New York, though he would continue to travel extensively for the rest of his career, making work in countries around the world.

Kawara’s work has been represented by David Zwirner since 1999. Solo exhibitions at the gallery include I READ 1966–1995 (1999), Reading One Million Years (Past and Future) (2001), Paintings of 40 Years (2004), and One Million Years (2009). In 2012, On Kawara: Date Painting(s) in New York and 136 Other Cities, which presented more than 150 Date Paintings selected by the artist, marked his fifth solo exhibition at the gallery in New York and was accompanied by an eponymous, fully illustrated catalogue published by Ludion.

The artist started exhibiting in Tokyo in the early 1950s. In the years since, his works have been included in numerous conceptual art surveys from the seminal Information at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1970 to 1965–1975: Reconsidering the Object of Art at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in 1995. Important early solo shows include On Kawara, 1973 — Produktion eines Jahres/One Year’s Production at the Kunsthalle Bern and the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, in 1974; On Kawara: continuity/discontinuity 1963–1979, which was first on view at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1980 and traveled to the Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; and The National Museum of Art, Osaka; On Kawara: Date paintings in 89 Cities, which toured from 1991 to 1993 to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Deichtorhallen Hamburg; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; On Kawara: Whole and Parts 1964–1995, on view from 1996 to 1998 at the Nouveau Musée/Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne, France; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Musée d’Art Moderne, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; and On Kawara: Horizontality/Verticality at the Städtischen Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau München, Munich, and Museum Ludwig, Cologne, in 2000–2001.

Kawara’s project One Million Years is a monumental series of twenty-four works comprising One Million Years [Past], which was dedicated to “all those who have lived and died,” and One Million Years [Future], addressed to “the last one.” The Past volumes, noting each year over an entire millennium from 998,031 BC, were started in 1970 and took two years to complete, while Future, begun in 1980, was written over the span of eighteen years and finishes at 1,001,997 AD. Together, the volumes account for two million years. The first audio presentation of One Million Years, where male and female volunteers alternately speak the dates aloud, took place at Dia Center for the Arts, New York, in 1993, and other venues have included Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2000); David Zwirner, New York (2001 and 2009); Documenta 11, Kassel (2002); Trafalgar Square, London (a continuous outdoor reading organized by the South London Gallery lasting seven days and seven nights, 2004); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2010); BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, England (2012); Jardin des Plantes, Paris (organized in conjunction with FIAC by Galerie Martine Aboucaya and Galerie Yvon Lambert, 2012); Dia Beacon, New York (2013); and BOZAR — Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (2013). In 2017, a reading took place in the Oratorio di San Ludovico Dorsoduro, Venice, as part of the 57th Venice Biennale (organized by Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England). More recent readings have been held at venues such as the Museum MACAN, Jakarta (2018–2019); Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (2021); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2021); Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Germany (2021); Saint-Martin Bookshop, Brussels (2022); FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, Ohio (2022); and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2023–2024). Readings from the books, which directly follow where the previous venue left off, will continue to take place.

Beginning in 1998, the artist exhibited seven Date Paintings at kindergartens around the world under the title Pure Consciousness. Among other locations, the paintings have been presented in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Leticia, Colombia; Toliara, Madagascar; London; Thimphu, Bhutan; Bequia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Yusuhara, Japan; Bethlehem; Brooklyn, New York; Tongyeong, South Korea; Münster, Germany; and Dazaifu, Japan.

Starting at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England, in 2002, On Kawara: Consciousness. Meditation. Watcher on the Hills traveled clockwise around the world to a dozen venues including Le Consortium, Dijon, France; Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany; Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore; and The Power Plant, Toronto, before ending at the Museo de Arte in Lima in 2006. In 2015, a critically acclaimed, career-spanning exhibition of the artist’s work, On Kawara—Silence, was organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Curated by Jeffrey Weiss with Anne Wheeler, it marked the first full representation of Kawara’s practice beginning in 1964. Also on view in 2015 was a solo show specially focused on Kawara’s production in 1966—a pivotal year in his practice—at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle, Belgium. A long-term installation of the artist’s Date Paintings is on view at Dia Beacon, New York.

Work by the artist is represented in museum collections internationally, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Kunstmuseum Basel; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Philadelphia Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tate, United Kingdom; Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota City, Japan; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

David Zwirner Gallery