Japanese-born, New York-based On Kawara is one of the world’s best-known Conceptual artists, a major international figure since the 1960s. Kawara’s existence is documented solely through his daily art-making practice; best known are his Date Paintings (1965-ongoing), in which he methodically creates a single painting a day, always in the same size and with simply the date written upon it. This book is a chance for his followers to unravel more of the mystery of this cult figure.
A unique feature of this book is the ‘Tribute’ section, to replace the Interview, which reflects the artist’s lifelong commitment never to be personally documented in his own words. A collection of short statements by thirty individuals selected by Kawara – among them artists Lawrence Weiner and Dan Graham and cultural theorist Homi Bhabha – create an indirect ‘portrait of the artist’. In his Survey, curator Jonathan Watkins examines the artist’s long career, from his early figurative painting in the 1950s, to his later, text-based Conceptual art. Curator René Denizot analyses in his Focus a two-person exhibition combining Kawara’s work with Alberto Giacometti’s, revealing both artists’ shared concern for the essence of human existence. The artist’s interest in consciousness is reflected in a scientific essay he has selected for his Artist’s Choice from the academic Journal of Consciousness Studies. In the Artist’s Writings a series of handwritten love letters in an indecipherable code reflect the mix of the impersonal and the deeply humanistic that runs through his art.