Ojisan trading cards bear the faces of real people – local men whose competing professional qualities determine the outcome of each game Like millions of children around the world the faces on the cards belong to real people – local men over a certain age whose competing professional qualities determine the outcome of each game a retired robotics expert; and even Kawara’s mayor They have all become unlikely local heroes which began as a fun distraction but is now an inspiration for other dwindling rural communities in Japan Kawara schoolboys Ataru and Sasuke play a game of ojisan trading cards in Kawara Photograph: Justin McCurry/The Guardian“It feels great when you win but it’s even more fun when you use a card featuring someone you actually know,” says 12-year-old Sasuke The team behind the game are taken aback by the attention “We’ve had visitors from Holland and Czech Republic who came just to see the cards and buy a starter pack,” says Yuki Murakami “We made the cards so local kids and older people would get together Children are really good at remembering faces and they’ve even persuaded some of the shyer adults to become characters.” Shinya Mimura Photograph: Justin McCurry/The GuardianNeighbouring communities are about to launch their own versions while trading cards have appeared in other parts of Japan but that has changed thanks to the card game,” says Tsuruga it’s done wonders for the psychology of the town.” the former head of the local fire brigade who is skilled in first aid and rescue work; soba chef Mr Takeshita who teaches noodle-making classes; Mr Kitamura who has never encountered a broken electrical appliance he can’t fix; and Mr Fujii a former prison correctional officer who now works as a volunteer driver for older residents A trading card game featuring middle-aged men has become an unlikely hit in a rural town in Japan Photograph: Justin McCurry/The GuardianEach card carries “hit points” and “magic points” with the owner of the most cards at the end of a game declared the winner secretary general of a local community council came up with the idea of using collectible cards to bring the community together after noticing how little social interaction there was between children and older people “I thought the card game was a fun way to introduce people to each other,” says Miyahara “The kids read the cards very carefully and seem to remember each character’s qualities right away.” the cards were turned into Pokemon-style trading cards at the urging of children who saw the competitive potential behind their disarmingly analogue pastime For Japan trading cards story Photograph: Justin McCurry/The GuardianWhen the ojisan cards appeared in late 2023 Kawara was battling the same challenges faced by other rural communities – an ageing shrinking population that was losing its sense of cohesion Kawara’s population peaked at about 19,000 after the second world war More than 40% of the population are aged 65 or over Its four primary schools and two middle schools are now under the same roof “I used a photo of each person and gave them the anime treatment so they all look a bit like AI versions of themselves,” says Hiroe Nishiu a retired employee of a robotics firm who can build just about anything once he puts his mind to it is among the unlikely cast of Kawara heroes but I had no idea about how I’d look on a card game,” says Kawai there’s that guy on the trading cards.’ It’s made it much easier for everyone to communicate … it was nothing like that before the game appeared.” a former train driver who does volunteer work is similarly nonplussed by his unlikely celebrity status I have to admit I was a bit embarrassed,” he says People even come up to me to ask for my autograph.” Locals say more children are involved in community activities and the invisible barriers between the generations are beginning to come down “He’s done lots of amazing things with robots Hiroyuki Fukushima is one of 22 Kawara men who appear in the ojisan trading card game Photograph: Justin McCurry/The GuardianKawai a multitalented member of the town council who appears on no fewer than six different cards joke that the game has spawned friendly rivalries even though the game itself tries to be as egalitarian as it is competitive “It’s not like one character is dramatically stronger than the others,” says Miyahara defeated characters take a break in the Yuzu Room – the nickname for the old primary school nurse’s office – where they remain until the end of the game pronounces the local ojisan heroes the “best” trading card game he’s ever played “The rules are easy to understand,” he says it’s something you can only play here in Kawara.” Editorial Team Feel free to reach us out and submit your design and inspiration we are always looking for interesting design ideas Pedrali At the intersection of minimalist beauty and advanced functionality Pedrali introduces two standout lighting solutions at Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025: the Filicudi portable lamp by Andrea Pedrali and the Kawara modular lighting collection designed by Yusuke Kawai Both collections reflect the Brand’s enduring vision—crafting versatile and aesthetically compelling designs that resonate in both residential and contract environments Filicudi is a rechargeable lamp that bridges utility and style Made from extruded aluminium and featuring a polycarbonate diffuser but it’s what happens when it’s not illuminating that sets it apart When the LED diffuser is removed for charging the lamp’s column cleverly transforms into a watertight flower vase turning it into a sculptural and practical element that complements any table setting—especially in hospitality and fine-dining environments Its multi-charging system allows up to ten lamps to be magnetically stacked and charged simultaneously eliminating cable clutter and optimizing space—a game-changer for commercial venues Beyond its compact proportions and tactile grooves, Filicudi offers three dimmable brightness levels, controlled via a touch sensor, making it adaptable to a variety of settings and moods. Available in a palette of powder-coated and anodised finishes, the lamp is designed to perform indoors and outdoors alike​ Drawing inspiration from the traditional Japanese kawara tiles, designer Yusuke Kawai created the Kawara collection—a family of lighting fixtures available in pendant (horizontal and vertical) and floor-mounted versions Crafted in extruded aluminium, Kawara is available in either a continuous linear form or in articulated modules linked by minimalist joining rings This modularity enables precise directional lighting allowing users to sculpt spaces with beams angled at 45° thanks to delicate grooves running along the lamp’s curved back adding a quiet sophistication to its minimal silhouette Kawara also features an integrated LED strip with dimmer providing nuanced control over brightness and ambience the lighting collection slips seamlessly into a variety of interior design schemes—perfect for workspaces Pedrali’s Salone 2025 theme and seamless integration of design with daily life offering lighting solutions that are sculptural yet functional but the experience of those who inhabit it Whether it’s the ambient glow of Filicudi on a terrace bistro table or the architectural rhythm of Kawara lights guiding a gallery corridor these collections illustrate that illumination is not just about visibility—it’s about storytelling get to know the most interesting Design trends & innovations (Innovative StartUp) Registered office: Via Aurelio Saffi 29 20123 Milan (Italy)  |  VAT no.: 10565330965  |  ROC no.: 36152  |  REA no.: MI-2541466  |  Share capital: 12.540€ Jennifer TeetsReviews12 March 2025ArtReview The artist’s early works stand in stark difference to the sombre conceptualism that followed an exhibition of four figurative paintings by On Kawara dating from 1955–56 is a surprise given these works’ relative underexposure their stark difference from the Japanese artist’s better-known practice and their outright strangeness Irregularly shaped canvases that woozily bend and distort the classical rectangle they are strikingly expressive in contrast to the sombre conceptual ‘date paintings’ that Kawara began a decade later (another exhibition is simultaneously on display at David Zwirner’s London gallery and co-organised by the artist’s One Million Years Foundation) Early Works details a period relatively undocumented in the artist’s life; little would one guess that they were executed by a twentysomething On Kawara in Tokyo the canvases allude to psychological trauma and disorder They offer a portal to a world that Kawara would soon leave behind – during the late 1950s he moved first to Mexico and later New York – and they’ve rarely been shown Given that Kawara actively oversaw the dissemination of his work while alive one is left to speculate if he himself blocked the showing of his early works until after his death Kawara’s wonky supports work in the service of apparent content reinforced by his use of tilted planes and eerie by the Kyushu flood of June 1953 – suggests a collapsing dark-green thatched roof swarmed by ants and replete with blue-black crisscrossing twiglike forms Invertebrates also dominate Golden Home (1956) climbing the legs and feet of a golden-hued table and stool on which sits a pile of gift-wrapped packages Both canvases use dense patterning combined with perspectival disorientation to harness a sense of invasion and malaise Kawara would go on to make nearly 3,000 ‘date paintings’ each attesting to moments in history and the inexorable passage of time These concerns seem preempted by these early works which share a sense of oblique signalling as well as a painting’s ability to convey hidden information Untitled (1956) shows bloodred and pink segmented worms inching across a table dressed in a pristine white tablecloth the composition is structured by the worms’ writhing forms counterbalanced by the black abyss at the painting’s left edge teeming crowd: figures rioting in a jail cell The appearance of their strong arms and fists through the grey textured walls and barred openings screams rage in a raw gesture of nonconformity Though Kawara was reluctant to apply political meanings to his work “I did not share the nostalgia that middle-aged cohorts had for the past I was filled with a desperate desire to tear things apart.” True to that intent these dreamlike Early Works translate the strange and ominous effects of history and temporal change into something immediately palpable: a trait that would carry over in a far more elusive and less expressive manner Early Works at David Zwirner, Paris, 23 November – 25 January From the March 2025 issue of ArtReview – get your copy Claudia RossReviews Martin HerbertReviews Tom MortonReviews Gaby CepedaReviews Chris MurthaReviews ArtReviewNewsartreview.com02 May 2025 The painting, worth €50 million, has sustained visible scratches The 10 Exhibitions to See in May 2025ArtReviewPreviewsartreview.com02 May 2025 Our editors on the exhibitions they’re looking forward to this month, from the Venice Architecture Biennale to Gallery Weekends in Berlin and Beijing AdvertisementHow the Museum Became a WeaponWilliam ShokiOpinionartreview.com02 May 2025 In apartheid South Africa, museums glorified white settlement and erased Black history; in the US today, they are again being captured under the guise of neutrality Vyjayanthi Rao to curate 2026 Sharjah Architecture TriennialMia SternNewsartreview.com02 May 2025 She will be joined by Tau Tavengwa as associate curator Ari Emanuel buys Frieze from EndeavorArtReviewNewsartreview.com01 May 2025 The entertainment company’s own former chief executive has acquired Frieze for a reported $200m Inaugural Annie Leibowitz prize awarded to photographer of migrant experiencesArtReviewNewsartreview.com01 May 2025 Zélie Hallosserie to receive $10,000 for her documentary work in Calais Helmut Lang Has Always Been ProvocativeClaudia RossReviewsArtReview01 May 2025 Lang’s newest artwork, like his clothing, explores the uncanny ways that industrial refuse can interact with and even evoke human flesh IKOB Feminist Art Prize announces winnersArtReviewNewsartreview.com01 May 2025 Matt Copson: Never Grow UpMartin HerbertReviewsArtReview30 April 2025 “What’s living with no hope?” asks the artist’s big animated baby at KW, Berlin. One thing is certain: we can’t stop watching Disability Is Not a Separate Category of PersonhoodAlice HattrickOpinionartreview.com30 April 2025 The disabled experience is increasingly visible in the artworld yet an ableist political landscape is constantly on the attack. This affects us all We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon We help you navigate a myriad of possibilities Sign up for our newsletter for the best of the city By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news Sign up for our email to enjoy London without spending a thing (as well as some options when you’re feeling flush) Our newsletter hand-delivers the best bits to your inbox Sign up to unlock our digital magazines and also receive the latest news By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. London why repeatedly update your fantasy football team throughout the week But I find myself obsessing over the minute why is it ‘June’ and ‘July’ but only ‘Nov’ why is ‘Août’ written in French But those tiny insignificant discrepancies are the tiny insignificant discrepancies of everyday life the friend you haven’t seen for years It might feel like I’m reading a lot into some dates painted on black canvases an idea he’s expressing through the act of painting When I was at the gallery an old lady asked the gallery assistant ‘is there anything else?’ Anything else? there’s nothing else because this is everything Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! tiktokfacebooktwitteryoutubeAbout us Contact us All pieces incorporate elements of the centuries-old Kyo-Gawara tile-making process and are shaped through press molding and rolling techniques the final smoking process gives them their distinct metallic finish all images courtesy of Rui Pereira and Ryosuke Fukusada a bent surface leg and a flat circular top form the coffee table the objects were exhibited at ALCOVA Milano 2024 | image by Yuta Sawamura crafted at Kyogawara Masahisa Asada’s historic Kyoto workshop | image by Yuta Sawamura gargoyle-inspired eye shapes allow light to pass through from the back a meticulous polishing and firing process leads to the metallic finish all objects incorporate elements of the centuries-old Kyo-Gawara tile-making process four bent surfaces shape the leg of the table the wall lamp is crafted from plaster mold KAWARA OBJECTS are shaped through press molding and rolling techniques name: KAWARA OBJECTS designers : Rui Pereira | @rui.pereira_/ & Ryosuke Fukusada | @ryosukefukusada designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here. happening now! partnering with antonio citterio, AXOR presents three bathroom concepts that are not merely places of function, but destinations in themselves — sanctuaries of style, context, and personal expression. An auction of works from the collection of Kasper König, the pioneering German curator, has achieved around €6m at Van Ham in Cologne. König had arranged the sale, which took place over two days on 1 and 2 October, before his death in August at the age of 80. The top lot was a work by the Japanese conceptual artist On Kawara, a red painting featuring the date “May 7, 1967” written is large font, that sold for a hammer price of €800,000 (€1.06 with fees) to a British collector. It set a new record for one of the artist’s date paintings, the auction house said in a press release. König did not consider himself a classic collector, but rather bought spontaneously or received gifts from the many artists he became acquainted with through his work. The auction, for which König planned the catalogue and exhibition, comprised 250 lots. Another date-themed painting by Kawara—a close friend of König’s—fetched €290,000. The black painting bearing the date “21 Nov 2003” was a gift to König for his 60th birthday, which was on that day. The work was sold to a Swiss buyer, Van Ham said. A private collector from Berlin paid €172,000 for a work by William Nelson Copley called Lady Be Good. A red garland by Thomas Schütte that hung in König’s Berlin apartment fetched €132,000. A private collection in Britain paid €343,000 for a work by Claes Oldenburg, Ghost Wardrobe for M. M.. The first exhibition König curated, at the age of 23, was a solo show devoted to Oldenburg in Stockholm and the two remained lifelong friends. The work by Sigmar Polke that König selected for the cover of the catalogue, Meisterwerk als Ramsch versteigert (Masterpiece sold as junk), fetched €73,000. Other top lots included works by Richard Artschwager and Thomas Bayrle. Claes Oldenburg, Ghost Wardrobe for M.M (1967–83) König was considered one of the most influential contemporary art exhibition-makers of his era. He lived for more than a decade in New York, working on European exhibition projects, and met artists including Carl Andre, Hanne Darboven, Dan Graham, Sol LeWitt, Bruce Nauman and Andy Warhol. He also founded Skulptur Projekte Münster, the internationally renowned sculpture exhibition that takes place every 10 years. He taught as a professor at the Städel art school in Frankfurt and served as director of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne from 2000 to 2012. He donated 50 works to the Museum Ludwig last year, including pieces by Pawel Althamer, Maria Eichhorn, Isa Genzken, Jenny Holzer and Jeremy Deller. the new space will include a sculpture garden on a roof terrace news14 December 2023Dealer Johann König opens second Berlin gallery in former telegraph officeThis is the first König space to launch since a number of artists left the gallery's roster last year news16 April 2024Monira Al Qadiri exhibition to open Johann König’s new Munich gallery in a former power plantKönig says the new space is one of the largest commercial galleries for contemporary art in Germany Why kids in Fukuoka are obsessed with collecting cards with middle-aged men on them In the small town of Kawara in Fukuoka Prefecture, something unexpected is happening at the Saidosho Community Center. While kids in most parts of Japan are obsessed with Pokémon cards — or perhaps the franchise’s latest smartphone game, Pokémon TCG Pocket — the children of Kawara are clutching to something a little closer to home.  They are playing a trading card game (TCG) where the stars aren’t fantasy creatures anime heroes or even famous baseball players but ojisan (middle-aged or older men) from the local community of Saidosho this Ojisan TCG looks like any other collectible card game there are 47 different cards in the collection including 28 featuring local men with stats and special abilities a former fire brigade chief who helped keep the town safe for decades who runs a local soba noodle-making class and now holds legendary status among the town’s youth.  The most popular of them all is probably All-Rounder Mr a former prison officer turned community volunteer His card is so sought after that local kids have even started asking him for autographs.  “I was honestly shocked when they asked me to sign it,” Mr “I never imagined I’d become a trading card Each card comes with different attacks and an assigned elemental type — just like a classic fantasy card game — but with a humorous bespectacled ojisan juxtaposed with an image of a lightbulb there is a line of text explaining how he can fix any electrical appliance without fail.  the Secretary General of the Saidosho Community Council.  “We wanted to strengthen the connection between the children and the older generations in the community. There are so many amazing people here. I thought it was such a shame that no one knew about them,” she said in an interview with Fuji News Network (FNN) so many kids are starting to look up to these men as heroic figures.”  Kids have started attending local events and volunteering for community activities — just for a chance to meet the ojisan from their cards Participation in town events has reportedly doubled since the game launched.  Ojisan TCG didn’t start as a competitive game The first set of cards was designed purely for collecting but the local children quickly turned it into something more dynamic the game’s creator decided to take it to the next level allowing the cards to be used in actual battles The objective isn’t to defeat the opponent’s card but to outplay it based on the characters’ skills and abilities.  The rarity of a card isn’t based on fantasy stats — it’s tied to real-world contributions The more actively the ojisan engages in volunteer work or community service the higher the chances of their card being upgraded to a shiny version with a glossy laminated effect.  While the cards — all made entirely by hand — are currently in high demand and often out of stock they are only available for sale at the Saidosho Community Center.  while a pack of six cards — including a shiny card — costs ¥500 with many kids saving their pocket money for a chance to score a shiny version of their favorite ojisan Japanese artist On Kawara sent a telegram to Nicholas Logsdail at the Lisson Gallery Was he seeking to reassure Logsdail ahead of his solo show on 8 May since this had been one of Kawara’s forms of artistic expression since the late 60s Toshiaki Minemura received a postcard of the Empire State Building that bore the words “I got up at 8.15 A.M.” Kawara sent hundreds of cards like this such as the picture of New York’s UN HQ he used to announce to Roger Mazarguil that he had got up at 2.37 am on 8 April 1971 (presumably jetlagged) Kawara’s first telegram in this vein sent on 5 December 1969 to the critic and curator Michel Claura read: “I am not going to commit suicide don’t worry.” It was followed three days later by worry,” after which the affair was closed with the message “I am going to sleep A month later Kawara sent his first “I am still alive” telegram – a gesture he would repeat time and time again throughout his career.  proudly announcing “I am still alive” in a complete disconnect from reality the artist Pall Thayer anonymously opened a Twitter account in the name of On Kawara (without telling him) and programmed a bot to tweet “I am still alive” every day at 10.00 am the Italian artist Salvo (real name Salvatore Mangione) had a marble plaque engraved with the words “Salvo è vivo” (“Salvo is alive”) it’s the back of the work that is now shown engraved with the words “Salvo è morte” (“Salvo is dead”) Newsroom 54 rue des Acacias 75017 Paris T+33 1 56 88 98 00   |    Advertising 54 rue des Acacias 75017 Paris T+33 1 56 88 98 37     |    Copyright © 2024 Numéro     |    Legal notices Votre inscription a bien été prise en compte David Zwirner is pleased to announce two exhibitions of paintings by On Kawara (1932–2014) which will be on view concurrently at the gallery’s London and Paris locations The presentations are organized in collaboration with the One Million Years Foundation established by the artist during his lifetime to ensure the legacy of his work These exhibitions are the gallery’s first presentations of Kawara’s work since his death in 2014 and offer a rare opportunity to view two significant bodies of his paintings Kawara 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 Kawara’s work encompasses the simultaneous mundanity and vastness of lived experience On view in London will be twenty-four paintings from Kawara’s signature Today series—known collectively as his Date paintings each composition—which consists of a calendar date rendered in a distinctive sans serif typeface created by the artist against a monochromatic ground in one of three colors—is the result of an established protocol and series of decisions that are at oncehighly ordered and situationally responsive Each of the paintings conforms to one of eight standard sizes and was carefully executed by hand on the date documented on the canvas (if the work was not completed by midnight Kawara would mix the color for each individual composition meticulously overlaying the date in white lettering in the language and grammatical conventions of the country in which it is made (Esperanto is substituted when the primary language of the country he was in did not use the Roman alphabet) Spanning almost the entire range of this body of work from 1966 the exhibition will feature a representative selection that includes several large-scale paintings a diptych made in Mexico City in April 1968 and one painting from every year of the 1970s these paintings showcase both the formal and conceptual breadth of this decades-long project Through their straightforward and direct composition addressing not only the passage of time but the nature of consciousness itself It represents the day on which it was made and if it’s not finished by the time the day comes to an end the day itself is something that has already passed by the time the painting is experienced by us The presentation in Paris will feature four rarely seen early paintings made by Kawara in Tokyo in 1955 and 1956 an active and vocal participant in the city’s avant-garde painting provided an avenue for thinking through the palpable collective trauma that loomed over his native country in the postwar years Kawara quickly distinguished himself from his peers; rather than depicting atrocities that remained fresh in the minds of Japanese citizens the artist chose to evoke their psychological resonances marshaling form and content in service of one another to channel the elusive feelings of unease These enigmatic and highly accomplished works which count among the earliest known instances of an artist working on shaped canvases simultaneously seem to collapse and expand space drastically unmooring the viewer’s understanding of perspective and testifying to the experience of a particular time and place Kawara donated the majority of his extant works from the 1950s to Japanese museums—almost as a ritual of closure before he moved into a new phase of artistic production He kept fewer than ten paintings from this period including those that will be on view in Paris Featuring easily identifiable and recurrent motifs—such as worms and maggots and empty dishes—that collide with kaleidoscopically patterned these vivid compositions seem to stand in diametric opposition to the straightforward works for which Kawara would later become known in many ways these paintings inform that which followed demonstrating the artist’s nascent interest in themes that he would later elaborate to great effect On Kawara (29,771 days) 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 during which time he studied modern art and traveled around the country—a period that proved formative in the development of his later work though he would continue to travel extensively for the rest of his career On 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) 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 his works have been included in numerous conceptual art surveys from the seminal Information at The Museum of Modern Art in 1970 to 1965–1975: reconsidering the object of art at the Museum of Contemporary Art 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 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 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 Turin; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Musée d’Art Moderne France; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; and On Kawara: Horizontality/Verticality at the Städtischen Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau München FAD Magazine FAD Magazine covers contemporary art – News Exhibitions and Interviews reported on from London On the occasion of David Zwirner’s concurrent exhibitions of On Kawara’s work in London and Paris the gallery will hold two readings of the artist’s epic One Million Years These day-long events will mark the 40th and 41st installments of this ongoing project which has previously been showcased at the 57th Venice Biennale One Million Years speaks directly about what is relevant to us all: the passage and marking of time developed by the artist—counting slowly from the past towards the present or from the present into the future—and will continue until all volumes have been read aloud Readings from On Kawara’s One Million YearsSaturday 11th January, 10 AM–6 PM London | David Zwirner, 24 Grafton StreetSaturday 25th January, 11 AM–7 PM Paris | David Zwirner’108, rue Vieille du Temple One Million Years is a group of twenty-four works twelve spanning past millennia and twelve spanning the future Respectively titled One Million Years: Past and One Million Years: Future each work comprises ten binders containing To create One Million Years, Kawara devised a cut-and-paste method in which columns of single digits could be glued to grids of numbers that had already been typed Final sheets were photocopied to conceal glued areas then fit in transparent plastic sleeves and bound in individually boxed volumes In 1993 Kawara expanded One Million Years to encompass live and recorded readings which allows the project to be both preserved and perpetuated through public recitation Since then, One Million Years has been the subject of numerous other live readings and recordings around the world developed by the artist: readers appear in pairs who reads the even numbers (gender non-conforming readers may choose which set of dates they wish to read) Each new session begins where the previous one ended— counting slowly from the past to the present or from the present into the future—to continue until the contents of all ten volumes of both works have been read aloud Mark Westall is the Founder and Editor of FAD magazine - there’s also real magic scattered throughout the city— The exhibition features eight generation-defining artists who played a central role in the resurgence and expansion of figurative painting during the 1990s When Found becomes Given precedes Wylie’s forthcoming solo exhibition in the Main Galleries at the Royal Academy of Arts nine exhibitions to see in Los Angeles during the art week Join the FAD newsletter and get the latest news and articles straight to your inbox ShareLetters of intent: seven artists who use text in their workArtists have been breaking down the barriers between art and the written word for more than 100 years all have works offered in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale in London on 6 March Tracey Emin (b. 1963), This Is Another Place, 2007 This work is number two from an edition of three plus two artist’s proofs Sold for £226,800 on 6 March 2025 at Christie’s in London arranging the words to form bold patterns on the page To mark the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale on 6 March 2025 at Christie’s in London, we present seven artists who have made art speak. On Kawara (1932-2014), Dec. 24, 2006, 2006 Liquitex on canvas and handmade cardboard box with newspaper clipping Sold for £529,200 on 6 March 2025 at Christie’s in London Cy Twombly (1928-2011), Untitled (Rome), 1962 Sold for £604,800 on 6 March 2025 at Christie’s in London Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994), Lasciare il certo x l’incerto (Leaving the certain for the uncertain), 1987 Sold for £40,320 on 6 March 2025 at Christie’s in London Barbara Kruger (b. 1945), Untitled (Only the unborn have your right to life), 1986. Colour coupler print. 53½ x 48½ in (135.8 x 123.1 cm). Offered in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale on 6 March 2025 at Christie’s in London Lawrence Weiner (1942-2021), A SPECIFIC SPACE FILLED WITH PARTICLES OF A SORT AT A SPECIFIC TIME, 2006. Language + the materials referred to. Offered in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale on 6 March 2025 at Christie’s in London Jenny Holzer (b. 1950), Blue Corner: Lustmord, Erlauf, Arno, Blue, Oh, 2002 This work is number three from an edition of six plus one artist’s proof 5¼ x 95⅜ x 3 in (13.3 x 242.3 x 7.6 cm) Sold for £31,500 on 6 March 2025 at Christie’s in London Sign up for Going Once, a weekly newsletter delivering our top stories and art market insights to your inbox Tracey Emin (b. 1963), This Is Another Place, 2007 Tracey Emin’s neon signs often articulate her deepest emotions She began using the medium in the early 2000s to convey her thoughts and fears and sometimes — in works such as Never Again made all the more so by the artist’s confessional tone This Is Another Place (2007) is constructed in Emin’s trademark slanted handwriting the thin neon tubes glowing with the hope of better days The phrase recalls the title of her 2002 exhibition at Modern Art Oxford which featured a number of her neon wall hangings The private collection of the late German curator Kasper König sold for €6 million ($6.5 million) last week at the auction house Van Ham in Cologne Following his death in Berlin on August 9th featuring 249 lots accumulated over six decades was sold in two segments on October 1st and 2nd The sale was initiated by König prior to his death Among the auction’s highlights were May 7, 1967 (1967) by On Kawara which sold for €1.06 million ($1.16 million) The latter painting was given by the artist to König for his 60th birthday Kawara and König shared a close friendship strengthened during their time as neighbors in New York in the 1960s and ’70s Known for supporting emerging artists and their careers the elder König was driven by personal connections to the art and artists he collected “Supporting artists early in their careers was always particularly close to Professor Kasper König’s heart,” said Dr “It was important to us in the creation of the catalog to make the personal connection with each work clear The research quickly made it clear: the art history of the 20th and 21st centuries is inseparably linked to the work of Kasper König.” König’s collection featured a large selection of sculpture work from artists including Richard Artschwager, Thomas Bayrle, and John Chamberlain. One standout lot was Thomas Schütte’s Rote Girlande (1979) König was an early supporter of Schütte who invited the then-23-year-old to participate in “Westkunst,” the sprawling survey of Western art König co-organized in Cologne in 1981 Today's print edition Home Delivery Trading cards featuring “local heroes,” including a soba-making master and a construction expert are gaining popularity among children in the town of Kawara in Fukuoka Prefecture The children are attracted to the personalities depicted in the cards created by resident volunteers which describe the skills and characteristics of real people prompting more of them to attend community events while deepening ties.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); shouts of “I made it!” and “I won!” were heard at a community center in the town's Saidosho district where seven elementary and junior high school students were playing with the trading cards They are all familiar with the people illustrated on the cards In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division We use cookies to provide a more personalized website experience By clicking “I Accept” you consent to all cookies Click “I Decline” to continue with essential cookies only Learn about how we use cookies As Long As It Lasts. Courtesy the artist and Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles / New York. Campbell also describes her innovative method of creating packing materials from scratch, inspired by Ed Ruscha painting Another Hollywood Dream Bubble Popped (1976), and the symbolic significance behind these fabrics' features. Campbell’s works, such as Pure Beauty with Packing Foam and Packing Tape and Double Elvis (Ferus Type) with Bubble Wrap and Packing Tape showcase her sophisticated commitment to technical precision.  As Long As It Lasts not only pays homage to seminal works of art but also invites viewers to reconsider their historical and cultural contexts from a contemporary perspective. Campbell’s unique blend of meticulous reinterpretation offers compelling commentary on the evolving nature of art, and its enduring and sometimes painfully dusty historical resonance.   Clare Gemima: Can you share one stand out experience during your time forensically deep diving into collections, archives, museums, libraries, estates (and beyond) that you depend on for your supportive research? I would love to hear about an unforgettable memory during these particular moments in your process that turned a lightbulb on for you, or made you make a total U-turn.  Tammi Campbell: For the series, I've gathered data based on On Kawara's known whereabouts, utilizing his other works such as postcards, telegrams, and his archive records of where he went and who he met. I selected specific dates for a few reasons: The dates I selected locate Kawara in New York, a fitting choice for an exhibition in the same city. Each date corresponds to an artwork that is connected to the broader art world in some way. For example: Pure Beauty with packing foam and packing tape, 2024. Acrylic on canvas. 45.5 x 45.25 x 1.5 in. Photo courtesy of Anat Ebgi Gallery, Los Angeles / New York.  Tammi Campbell: In previous works I have recreated many different packing materials including cardboard, poly-wrap, stretch-wrap, bubble wrap, and various tapes all out of acrylic paint. I made several attempts at creating packing foam in the past, and could get close to the texture, color, and translucency but, with the material being paint, it was too heavy and couldn’t achieve the airy-feel of the lightweight material.   Clare Gemima: Additionally, molds of bubble wrap drape around works like Double Elvis (Ferus Type) with Bubble Wrap and Packing Tape, and Flowers (6) with Bubble Wrap and Packing Tape, (both 2024). Your insane embellishments hide and conceal not only the historic significance of the original work your pieces insinuate, but also to your immensely dedicated technical skills operating to execute them. What else does your ‘original’ packing material symbolize and disrupt?  Homage to the Square with Bubble Wrap and Packing Tape, 2024. Acrylic on board with metal frame. 41.5 x 41.5 x 1.375 in. Photo courtesy of Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles / New York.  Clare Gemima: The title of your show, As Long As It Lasts, is vinyl cut and adhered to the gallery’s front door, and humorously recalls the text works of Lawrence Weiner (1942-2021) in its uniform capitalization and shade. Can you provide insight and explain the foundation of this piece?  As Long As It Lasts is on view at Anat Ebgi Gallery between May 3 and June 15, 2024. WM   Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker 1933–2014Following2.4kFollow2.4k2.4k FollowersOn Kawara is famous for his “Today” series of paintings that depict the date of their completion in the language and dating conventions of the country in which they were completed The digital afterlife of a conceptual artist It’s generally agreed that the internet is doing something to our brains and feel an addict’s pleasure when we achieve it this will seem either something to celebrate or something to mourn I was going to begin by saying that the internet has changed how I think about one of my favorite artists But I’m not sure whether it’s fair to claim On Kawara as a favorite; a true conceptualist in part because one of the “people” I follow on Twitter is @On_Kawara @On_Kawara has issued the same digital proclamation: “I AM STILL ALIVE.” Appended to this message is the statement #art Twitter will deliver every statement so designated and you see how broad a definition art really has @On_Kawara was started by artist Pall Thayer He doesn’t call himself the project’s author but its maintainer: his role is to ensure the automated flow of daily tweets I’m in awe of how this little bit of code that Thayer devised has changed my thinking about Kawara.   “I am still alive” is a phrase of Kawara’s; he sent almost nine hundred telegrams bearing that message It’s of a piece with his other long projects all very interested in the day as a measure of time Kawara mailed postcards noting the hour at which he arose or listed the people to whom he spoke in a twenty-four-hour period was simply a rendering of the date on which the painting was made and telegrams have the impersonal remove of pure data; the latter leave the artist out of the equation altogether a missive dispatched from one clerk to another with its stark white type over solid-colored backgrounds offers something closer to visual pleasure I’ve long thought about the art as a statement divorced from the man himself depicting the dates of my sons’ births; the artist is so separate from his work it didn’t strike me as a particular insult or violation But my steady exposure to the bot has changed how I think about the art I cannot see a Kawara now without hearing the phrase “I am still alive.” And it’s an apt précis of everything the artist ever did His abiding preoccupation was the mortal’s desperation to measure time Kawara’s minimalism and precision once seemed chilly to me; now his entire project seems so touchingly human we must accept that social media has some influence on civic discourse It makes sense that an aspect of that influence will be curatorial because it’s so hard to predict what work will look right on Instagram or resonate on Twitter If there is a generation who understands Yayoi Kusama as someone who made beautiful backdrops for selfies at least that generation will remember her forty-three people around the world tweet about art They’re looking at Monet in a museum joking that their diner grilled cheese is a thing of beauty showing off a page in their own sketchbook The critic or consumer accustomed to asking “But is it art?” may someday ask instead if it is “#art.” I’ve probably spent as many minutes with @On_Kawara as I have in museums actually looking at On Kawara’s work and authorship seems almost beside the point If I claim this artist as among my favorites does it matter if I’m thinking of the unauthorized bot or the man himself or is it simply enough that I am thinking Kawara’s telegram series began with three messages: “I am not going to commit suicide don’t worry,” “I am not going to commit suicide worry,” and “I am going to sleep forget it.” This is a bit of context that really shapes how you weigh the fourth “I am still alive.” It can feel like a threat On Kawara gives us so little of himself that our reading of his words reveals us Among Kawara’s projects were calendars; the most ambitious stretched one million years into the past and one million years into the future the dates were read aloud as a performance There’s something similar about @On_Kawara’s tweets We’re only a few thousand days into it but it’s a short leap to imagine a million tweets the statement “I am still alive” doesn’t feel plaintive or reflective curators and art historians have conferred upon Kawara something close to immortality But @On_Kawara has given the man immediacy I now see all of Kawara’s work as the product of a mind fretting over its eventual demise So too do I see it as the product of a man who triumphed over that demise Rumaan Alam is the author of the novel Rich and Pretty and elsewhere; his writing has appeared in the New York Times His novel That Kind of Mother will be published in 2018 Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. alleged to have called the doctor 500 times in one day broken into his clinic and attacked his wife I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A Brazilian woman arrested earlier this month is accused of displaying stalker behavior similar to that portrayed in the Netflix show “Baby Reindeer” over a doctor who she said “saved her life.” She also contacted his family and broke into his clinic prior to her arrest Welch, a student studying nutrition at a university in the Uberlandia municipality, was arrested in Ituiutaba, Brazil, on May 8 after allegedly stalking the medical professional who treated her for depression six years ago The charge of stalking carries a sentence of up to two years in jail according to Brazilian news outlet Fantastico She had been considered a fugitive since March 2023 told Fantastico that after he had treated Welch waiting behind corners for him to finish work before following him home that no one saves someone else’s life so many times out of the blue that there was something more to it,” the doctor explained He added that she broke into his practice and “chased him several times” The case bears similiarities to the Netflix show “Baby Reindeer”, written by British comedian Richard Gadd, which retold the “true story” of his own experience with a stalker. The hit show drew backlash after social media sleuths, despite being warned off by Gadd, tracked down the supposedly anonymous woman depicted in the show – “Martha” – online. Journalist Piers Morgan later conducted a lengthy interview with the “real-life Martha” on his YouTube series, Piers Morgan Uncensored. In Brazil, the doctor said that Welch’s messages had become threatening and he had attempted to cease contact with her, even asking a colleague to treat her instead. She had an “incredible ability” to track him down, he said. "She ended up… sending me 1,300 messages in one day. And calls, she sent me more than 500 calls in one day, a single day,” he told Fantastico. “I changed my cell phone number three or four times, but I stopped changing because I saw it was completely useless. She had an incredible ability to find my new number.” According to Fantastico, in the last five years, the doctor has registered 42 police reports against Welch. In one instance in 2022, she broke into his office and attacked his wife. In 2023, Welch stole the doctor’s wife’s phone, leading to a warrant for her arrest. In March 2023, she was issued with a restraining order, but failed to comply with the terms. Earlier this month another woman, Rebeca Garcia, was dubbed “The Venezuelan Baby Reindeer” by Latin American media outlets. Dozens of Venezuelan women said that Garcia had been harassing, stalking and threatening them over multiple years. The case went viral on social media in Latin America, in part because of the overwhelming response to the victims’ accounts and pleas for justice in the country where officials claimed that “harassment between women doesn’t exist.” Garcia allegedly sent hundreds of inappropriate emails to her victims, broke into their residences, and even published a book on Amazon detailing “false” encounters and fantasies with multiple women. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies This year’s must-see shows range from a Nordic Pavilion exploring transgender spaces to a compelling Lebanese project confronting the realities of ecocide Frieze returns to The Shed in May with more than 65 of the world’s leading contemporary art galleries and the acclaimed Focus section led by Lumi Tan ‘This is the passing of time visualized through a contrapuntal freezing of it’ a promise snapped in pieces: each and every external gesture is an attempt to know the world as it exists in relation to ourselves and few projects visualize this ceaseless process of (self-)exploration more poetically than the seemingly innumerable panels of On Kawara’s ‘Today’ series which began on 4 January 1966 and continued up to 2014 They are just that: monochromatic panels of grey upon which Kawara painted the date of their conception This is the passing of time visualized through a contrapuntal freezing of it To flick through Kawara’s timestamps is to frantically search for some vague semblance of yourself; to scramble for a single date that while it may have fallen victim to the passing of years To mine these dates for potential significance is to trespass on the property of ghosts One may glimpse a personal detail or delicacy but as a result of the magnitude of Kawara’s project and the relatively uninteresting nature of life what is most frequently found is a feeling of irrelevance for in this acceptance of insignificance we concede that an unknown date may be are made aware of the thick crowd of people who are standing in the same room – searching also ‘Today’ channels what it is to be both significant and of slight consequence; what it is to cherish a moment and be unloving of life; what it is to be alone and inextricably bound to an unknown quantity of others each of whom is similarly anxious about their exact position within the world It gives you an idea of what it is to be alive Harry Thorne is a writer and editor based in London ‘Still Alive’ registers the inequity inherent in the world while imagining a trajectory to a future unburdened by rigid categories of identity Why are we so quick to praise mass participation ‘IF THE SNAKE’ shows a world caught in limbo – or hell   pairs the pop master with the early twentieth-century eccentric The photograph from the blaze at Frankfurt’s MMK exposes the fundamental task of every museum A response to the late Greek artist’s survey at Fondazione Prada Contemplating deep space and ‘cosmic archaeology’ the artist reflects on her fascination with the universe beyond planet Earth Two concurrent exhibitions in London use mark-making as a way to get at something beyond what we see The first in our series of reports from the 2019 Venice Biennale: the National Pavilions in the Giardini and it was my first time hearing anything so Black and British – and ‘The world certainly wasn’t perfect but that night I didn’t have to contend with an unmadeness’ ‘Some have mattered more to the living Jalal others to the dead one indulging in jouissance’ © FRIEZE 2025 Cookie Settings | Do Not Sell My Personal Information New YorkMore than 3,000 times over 48 years the artist painted nothing but the date – but there is nothing mechanical about this show which reckons with the grandest questions but feels lived in and unpretentious One day is enough, Mrs Dalloway teaches us; one day contains everything. That was especially true for On Kawara the Japanese-born American artist who turned each day into a monument depicted nothing but the date on which he painted On Kawara: Silence a quietly rapturous exhibition that opens this weekend at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York showcases the career of an artist who used minimal means for maximum effect The artist died last year while preparing this show – instantly transforming his sequential paintings from an open-ended feat to a closed structure – and I had expected that Kawara’s insistently spare art would feel funereal in the Guggenheim’s grand spiral the exhibition is somehow awesome and modest at once It reckons with the grandest questions of being and time and then makes an individual life feel as broad as the universe Each painting is one of eight standard sizes as small as a sheet of A4 paper or as large as 3.5 square meters and uses one of three background colours: dark grey DEC 1966–2013 Photograph: Courtesy David Zwirmer New York/LondonFor many of the date paintings Kawara designed cardboard containers – lined with a newspaper published on the day these boxes are presented here alongside the paintings and they reinscribe the abstract date into the rumble of history and we learn from the newspaper he glued into the box that the weather in New York was fair and cold Kawara completed a date painting; President Nixon named a supreme court justice Kawara completed a date painting; the Knicks beat the Celtics The box for the painting of 2 February 1970 Kawara’s date paintings are both – a perpetual abstraction but also a system of self-portraits; a calendar that constant oscillation between the quotidian and the universal Title Patrons’ Permanent FundAnd then there is the blunt underappreciated fact that for all his conceptual rigor The artist’s lack of “progress” throughout his career – the dates change but the style remains the same for five decades – can be deceptive here; Kawara cared deeply about composition and craft in a way that sets him well apart from other artists we lump under the umbrella of conceptualism He mixed his own paint each day for the background colours The backgrounds were painted in multiple coats the dates painstakingly lettered in the composition’s center I think of Kawara in his studio in the East Village hunched over a desk or a table (he did not use an easel) but there is nothing mechanical about them The first two ramps are devoted to a single run of date paintings from 1970 But the top ramp has a single painting from every year from 1966 to 2014 – running down like the giant one Kawara completed upon the Apollo moon landing of 21 July 1969 And there are only 150 of them on view – which is a lot Nevertheless, Kawara’s date paintings look fantastic in Frank Lloyd Wright’s often inhospitable temple The show insists on the painterliness of his paintings – the careful arrangement of shapes on canvas over five decades – and not just their philosophical heft And Weiss’s satisfyingly unponderous presentation shows Kawara as an artist with not just one but a number of daily practices APR – 1 1969 he would send a postcard to friends and other arts professionals depicting mundane sites like Yankee Stadium and the Eiffel Tower “I got up at 10:55am,” he announces on 15 September 1968 One postcard depicts the Guggenheim itself which Kawara sent to the art historian Lucy Lippard on 31 January 1970 “I got up at 6:15pm,” it reads – though he still had time to complete a date painting before midnight Kawara also photocopied maps and traced his daily peregrinations around New York or his endless travel – in the pre-EasyJet era he was constantly hopping from Berlin to Tokyo to Mexico City he sent almost 900 telegrams with a single phrase: I am still alive So for many days of Kawara’s life we have not only a painting he made but also an NSA-worthy record of the time he woke offered in this moving and generous exhibition and essentially no photographs of him after his youth He steadfastly refused to provide any biographical detail to scholars We do not even know the exact dates of his birth and death All we know is that he was born in 1932 and died in 2014 – and that On Kawara lived 29,771 days View upcoming auction estimates and receive personalized email alerts for the artists you follow. Presented in a dedicated single-owner sale, the late dealer’s discerning trove showcases seminal works by Richard Prince, Andy Warhol, Mike Kelley and Rudolf Stingel. MOCA’s “Ordinary People” manages to tell a story about photorealism that is eclectic, diverse, condescending and drab. The artist’s early works stand in stark difference to the sombre conceptualism that followed. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article Print On Kawara the acclaimed but enigmatic Japanese artist whose body of conceptual works addressed the passage of time in detached according to his representatives at the David Zwirner Gallery The artist had lived in New York for five decades; no cause of death was given Kawara avoided interviews and seldom had his picture taken preferring not to attend his own openings and resisting others’ attempts to explain his intentions to the public Kawara was featured in shows at major museums and galleries around the world including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 1995 and a solo show at the Otis Art Institute Gallery in 1977 Guggenheim Museum in New York will mount a major show on the artist Time is the dominant motif in Kawara’s work and he explored the subject in diaristic and numerically obsessive ways “Today” remains his most famous work — a series of monochromatic paintings that impassively documents the dates of their creation Each painting bears a single date in the language and format of the country where they were created (The artist made each canvas in a 24-hour period.) His first “date” painting was made Jan and the series now comprises thousands of individual paintings “One Million Years” was one of his most ambitious projects consisting in part of individuals reading a long list of dates spanning 1 million years into the past and the future The piece has been performed at museums and galleries in the U.S Another time-centric piece was “I Got Up,” which documented on postcards the times the artist arose from bed on days between 1968 and 1979 Critics have tended to categorize Kawara with conceptual artists like Joseph Kosuth and Lawrence Weiner both of whom frequently incorporated text into their creations Some have also read Zen and other Buddhistic meanings into his work But interpretation of his art has remained difficult given Kawara’s virtually non-existent public persona A Times review of a Kawara show at the Stuart Regen Gallery in L.A in 1991 described the artist’s works as “stubborn in their enigma using but refusing to co-opt whatever information the viewer chooses to bring to them.” Kawara grew up in the tumult of World War II he moved to Tokyo where he started exhibiting his work but his career in his native country was brief He moved to Mexico City in 1959 and eventually made New York his home Kawara’s first New York show was in 1976 at the Sperone Westwater Fischer Gallery His 1977 solo exhibition at the Otis was described in a Times review as “strictly impersonal There is neither confession nor emotion in his work he reveals nothing that the most discreet citizen would choose to keep hidden.” Kawara wasn’t entirely a recluse as far as friends and colleagues were concerned One of his long-running projects was a series of telegrams sent to associates that bore a single line: “I am still alive.” shows was a solo exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art in 2008 and the year-long “One Thousand Days One Million Years” at the Dia Center for the Arts in New York in 1993 The upcoming Guggenheim exhibition, which was organized with the cooperation of the artist showcasing works as far back as 1964 and including a continuous Another posthumous exhibition is being planned for 2015 at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle Although his exhibitions included few biographical details Kawara would almost always find a way to mention the number of days he had been alive the catalog noted that the artist had lived 16,378 days at the opening Kawara had lived 29,771 days at the time of his death david.ng@latimes.com Television Sports Entertainment & Arts Obituaries Sports Entertainment & Arts World & Nation Music Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map presents Kawara’s work as just this: a record of time and habit as the systems that govern our daily lives The museum’s unique layout amplifies Kawara’s output generating significance through the sheer mass of material presented and Kawara’s oeuvre in turn embodying what seems like the proper work to fill this space the Guggenheim’s High Gallery offers a prelude of sorts to Kawara’s best-known works in Title (1965) a triptych of early riffs on the date paintings that show more conceptual freedom than his later series “ONE THING,” reads the left panel; “VIET-NAM,” the right; “1965,” answers the larger centerpiece which serves as a gravity point for the two wings With this grouping Kawara makes a striking moral pronouncement that surpasses much of the work for which he is best known evoking his own perspective on the world more strongly than in the systematic “Date Paintings” (1966-2013) that are the focus of the Guggenheim’s presentation As one rounds the ramp that displays paintings made on 97 consecutive dates in 1970—this retrospective marking their return to this building after their debut at the 1971 Guggenheim International Exhibition—one can’t but wonder: What did Kawara actually achieve through this vigilant record-keeping What is the substance of these repeated letters and numbers in identical frames The visual impression they give is initially dominated by their referential power as the dates are all that differentiate one work from another but the Guggenheim’s arrangement highlights the elements of these works that prohibit their true uniformity—the letters and numbers become shapes that point nowhere symbols divorced from their reference points one that points to the schema with which we measure our lives without ever quite overcoming its grasp each one lined with a newspaper clipping from the day it was created These framed clippings are more evocative and particular mementos of Kawara’s days the headlines they bear are hauntingly familiar “ISRAELI JETS FIGHT EGYPTIAN PLANES OVER SUEZ CANAL,” shouts the New York Times clip that lines the box for Jan “TEXT OF THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE TO CONGRESS PROPOSING ACTION AGAINST POLLUTION.” A clip from February 22nd reports the crash of an Israel-bound plane after a bomb exploded aboard “Some people think our noon Royal Hawaiian flight is our most beautiful nonstop to Los Angeles.” It’s here in the curated collection of paraphernalia from the days he documented that one can trace Kawara’s thinking as he crafted these works the paintings lure viewers up the Guggenheim’s spiral In the moments of its most intense repetition In the alcove that inaugurates the presentation of Kawara’s near-daily telegrams to a host of friends most bearing the simple message “I AM STILL ALIVE,” three framed telegrams are set apart from the others their texts create an ambiguous but frantic narrative: “I AM NOT GOING TO COMMIT SUICIDE DONT WORRY”; “I AM NOT GOING TO COMMIT SUICIDE WORRY”; “I AM GOING TO SLEEP FORGET IT.”  On KawaraTelegram to Sol LeWitt, February 5-1970"On Kawara - Silence" at Guggenheim Museum, New York (2015) For an artist that famously kept out of reach of interviews and press appearances these fleeting details provide the only entry points into Kawara’s life in a body of work that is divorced from the personal along with the ritualized practice that led to their creation that indicate something of the artist’s presence in the works An image from one of Kawara’s journals of a handful of date paintings made in mid-October 1966 stacked against the wall in what is likely his studio perhaps reveals more about the mundane tendency of his work than the Guggenheim’s triumphant display lets slip by numbering in the thousands and representing his days on earth none point toward the contents of those days—what Kawara thought He was in these places at these times; so were others What he memorializes is the universal: the dates It’s clear that Kawara paid special attention to the passing of his life but that attention is somehow dissolved in the works he left behind They become a memorial to the system rather than a successful attempt to break its hold Installation view of "On Kawara – Silence," courtesy of the Guggenheim Museum While the Guggenheim’s presentation allows the works to claim an existence of their own it doesn’t expose much about the artist himself who helped initiate plans for the retrospective before his death last summer chose the spiral symbol that follows the word “Silence” in the exhibition’s title both of the Frank Lloyd Wright-conceived spiraling ramp of the museum and of time—the subject Kawara took up most thoughtfully in his work—may be one of the most outspoken actions of the artist to be found in the whole place The artist’s own silence provides a passive answer of sorts calling out the system that unites us and erasing what is essential to the individuals that live it —Halley Johnson “On Kawara – Silence” is on view at the Guggenheim Museum Follow the Guggenheim Museum on Artsy Installation views of "On Kawara – Silence," courtesy of the Guggenheim Museum you can dip into one of the weirder artistic rivers of the last 40 years and behold—or participate in—On Kawara’s mad epic sculpture–performance One Million Years New York–based artist’s rarely seen work is centered around a desk and two chairs in a windowed booth at the center of the otherwise almost empty Zwirner gallery One man and one woman take turns reading progressive dates going one million years into the future or into the past I spent an hour reading the 875 years between A.D It was one of the odder hours I’ve ever spent in a gallery Kawara’s obsession with time can be traced to January 4 the day he made the first in his series “The Today Paintings.” For each of these works—there are now more than 2,000 of them—Kawara paints only the alphanumeric date on which the painting was made and always appears on a monochromatic field of red If a painting isn’t finished the day it is begun Each one comes boxed with a newspaper page from the day it was created The works themselves have the presence of tombstones they also put you in touch with ideas about chance and a vaguely Eastern attitude about self-negation I arrived early at Zwirner to watch other people read The exercise seemed simultaneously stimulating and dull I loved that human beings were animating this minimalist box From outside the box the experience is pretty low-affect more like seeing newscasters in the NBC windows at Rockefeller Center than watching Nervously approaching the two sound engineers seated at a desk across from the booth I asked to participate for only one of my two hours Since the experience was so rich and bizarre I kept mental notes on how my time unfolded because (a) she’s associated with a famous American art magazine for which I have never written and (b) I have written lukewarm things about the art of her late husband Enter booth with sound engineer Scott Fulmer We’re told to read at our own pace and to pause between dates “has the harder job because she reads the even dates and is responsible for going to the next line without losing her place.” “Yes,” I say ponderously “there is something Darwinian about women having to be more aware of the cycle and men being in abstract time.” Both blink at me I begin to drop the word “and” from the dates reading them in the form “Thirty-eight thousand six hundred fifty-eight A.D.” Molly quickly begins following same template could you read that one again?” Molly finally looks at me “I think I wanted to be the woman.” More blank stares Bad stretch: Read six dates incorrectly in less than 100 years Remember what a terrible student I used to be it occurs to me that we are now reading dates that end in digits that correspond to my life Decide that if I have a funny feeling when I read a particular date after A.D that will correspond to the year I will die Depression turns to fury as I realize Kawara has turned me into a puppet I decide to look up from the page and begin reciting years with my eyes closed She seems to be responding to something too Think about how art has long sought to vanquish time and allay our fears that no one gets out of here alive Kawara looks slyly and seriously into the face of our metaphysical gatekeeper hoping I’ll be asked to step in and read for someone who doesn’t show up BACKSTORYKawara’s date paintings have remained stunningly consistent in the 43 years he’s been making them but seeing a series of them together—as visitors can at Dia:Beacon—does reveal tiny changes along the way he modifies the date convention based on where each painting is made If he’s working in an English-speaking country he paints the date in English; in other Western nations he uses the local language; and if he’s somewhere (say in the Far East) that doesn’t use the Roman alphabet he renders it in the synthetic language Esperanto Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York would not have wanted an obituary like this He would have preferred the page to be left blank except for his name and the number of days he had been alive He was preoccupied with the passing of time and when asked for his biography for an exhibition catalogue he would respond simply with the number of days elapsed between his date of birth and the date of the exhibition opening This was consistent with the existentialist proposition of his work: that human life does not add up to anything beyond itself He explored the nature of our consciousness enhanced by a kind of meditation on living through time the Pure Consciousness project saw Date Paintings installed in nursery classrooms in 21 locations from Abidjan to Istanbul from Reykjavik to a rainforest in Colombia Pure Consciousness suggested an aspiration to the condition of children's perception a consciousness that has not yet been mediated or habituated by experience It is a work that is key to our understanding of Karawa's artistic practice The same could be said for One Million Years [Past] (1969) a book in which the years 998,031BC to AD1969 were spelled out in typewritten text which included the years AD1996 to AD1,001,995 consisting of 10 volumes and 20,000 pages each The subtitle for One Million Years [Past] is "For all those who have lived and died"; for One Million Years [Future] it is "For the last one" The work reminds us that our time is short within the universal scheme of things not only as individuals but also as a species A continuous reading lasting seven days and nights in 2004 of On Kawara's One Million Years [Past] and [Future] in Trafalgar Square, London. Photograph: Chris Young/PAThere have been many public readings from the One Million Years books, most notably at Documenta 2002 and on Trafalgar Square in 2004 Another will be a central feature of the forthcoming retrospective at the Guggenheim in New York He was a high school student there when the second world war ended with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki events that had a profound impact on his formation as an artist which depicted naked figures in various states of mutilation in a tiled room with slug-like creatures crawling on the floor and walls Kawara settled in New York in 1964 and his later work is devoid of such overt references to the horrors of war The telegrams he frequently sent to friends and acquaintances were often inscribed simply "I am Still Alive" – for a serial work ongoing from 1970 until telegrams became obsolete This preoccupation with mortality could be read as a legacy of the nuclear cataclysms wreaked on Japan as it was his conviction that his art work was not about him he did not want to be photographed or interviewed and (with some youthful exceptions) did not publish statements it would be wrong to think of him as a recluse In 2006 I visited him at his Paris apartment Amused by the unusual amount of obvious play acting and faked injuries instead of gambling on teams winning or losing he made bets with me about the number of times paramedics would be called on to the pitch during matches He is survived by his wife and two children 29,771 days between late December 1932 and late June 2014 own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment University of Newcastle provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU View all partners On Kawara – Silence at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City was always going to be one of the most significant exhibitions of On Kawara’s career it is the first fully representative survey of five decades of the artist’s practice which focuses on exploring time and our different perceptions of its scale worked closely with the Guggenheim on this exhibition and his presence is clear throughout its narrative only seven months before the exhibition opened now changes the context of that story: On Kawara – Silence is no longer an exploration of an artist’s ongoing practice but an elegy that maps an artist forever absent and a life now complete Kawara is perhaps best known for his series of Date Paintings which form the longitudinal body of work titled Today Each canvas in this extensive series carries nothing but a line of white text on a dark coloured background conveying the date it was created the year after Kawara moved from Japan to New York In the book that accompanies the exhibition “There are no published photographs of On Kawara after 1965” It is as though this date marks the rebirth of Kawara as a data-generating entity which ceaselessly maps and traces itself through space and time Daniel Buren says in his essay for the book: On Kawara was not born on such and such day and such and such year like everyone else which we conceive as a cycle rather than a succession of days It’s an uncommon approach to time that disrupts how we usually conceive and contain time The Date Paintings form the backbone of On Kawara – Silence and continuing up the Guggenheim’s spiralled ramp The Guggenheim is a notoriously difficult exhibition space which guide the audience from room to room the Guggenheim has a continuously sloping ramp that corkscrews from the ground to the top of the building Many Guggenheim shows are organised from the top down (take the elevator up and walk down) but On Kawara – Silence climbs up the spiral with its side rooms creating intervals that group together works into sections which use private ciphers to create coded messages and his Journals a detailed inventory of his Today series since 1965 they pass three months of Date Paintings from 1970 (January 1 to March 31) Kawara’s Date Paintings often seem sterile aesthetically dry and – let’s be frank – dull This is the curse of much conceptual art work these works are unexpectedly beautiful in their execution “the paintings are slowly crafted in multiple layers” The hand-painted lines that render the text are delicate and accurate; the canvases are flawlessly constructed “these cannot be identified as conventional objects of aesthetic contemplation” there is a conceptual aesthetic at play – there is a beauty to the complexity and sheer obsessive scale of his mapping Each canvas is accompanied by its storage box in a display cabinet in front of the paintings Each box is lined with a section of a daily newspaper from wherever Kawara happened to be at on that day 1970 is lined with a New York Times picture of the groovy Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon January 15 is lined with the Times’ death notices the seemingly sterile Date Paintings open onto a whole world of the times and places into which they were created The dates are given a human scale and a social dimension This is expanded further in Kawara’s I Read works in which the artist shows us everything he read during the years 1968-1979 location and social dimensions of Kawara’s days I Met is a day-by-day typewritten catalogue recording everyone Kawara met on any given date I Got Up consists of 11 years of daily postcards The addressed side of the cards read in rubber-stamped text “I got up” followed by a time from one side we see only the text with the varying times of Kawara’s rising; from the other side the postcards read as a mass of cheaply printed picture postcards of New York Mexico City and other places where Kawara visited Similarly mapping Kawara’s geographical coordinates his I Went work traces in red line on a map everywhere Kawara went in the location he was in at the time One of the pages on display mapped Kawara’s movements around his hometown in Japan Kariya – the date is the day after my own birth the relational social dimensions of Kawara’s work became clear and we inevitably map our own days and locations to those of Kawara but each one has billions of possible permutations Kawara began sending telegrams declaring “I am not going to commit suicide don’t worry” These mutated into the more positive message of “I am still alive” on January 20 1970 and continued in telegrams to friends who in August 1913 took a vacation in a seaside town on the estuary of the Thames the artists’ affirmation of being alive is inevitably overshadowed by the inevitability of their death The restating of “I am still alive” cannot help but be a memento mori On July 15 2014, The New York Times reported the death of On Kawara stating that his family “declined to provide the date of death or the names of survivors” given the amount of detailed information that Kawara gave us about his life since the mid-1960s Kawara’s work tells us so much of the metadata of Kawara’s life We might know he was in New York on 1 April 1969 and got up at 8:15am but most of us still don’t even know what the artist looked like Kawara’s extraordinary 1960s conceptualist project of documenting every detail of one’s life regardless of its banality has drifted over the years towards the norm Kawara’s work seems to presage a world of social media to leave a trace of the most banal daily metadata of our existence Kawara’s obsessive self observation has become automated and the norm The book for On Kawara – Silence gives a clear sense of the exhibition having been severely disrupted by Kawara’s death during its final planning stages Daniel Buren’s essay ends with him saying that he has just learned about Kawara’s death: The interruption here is all the more brutal Jeffrey Weiss likewise says that the exhibition “now inevitably serves to mark his loss” spiralling towards the inevitable apex of the Guggenheim’s ramp feels less like a life interrupted than a life now complete Perhaps it reminds us in an unexpectedly poetic way that with life and death interruption and completion are the same thing Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission Kawara’s long artistic river has glided silently through the art world he began making thousands of straightforward alphanumerical paintings of dates that were destroyed if not completed in one day; in 1969 he began a many-decade performance work in which he had people count one million years This enigmatic geomancer of invisible infinities finally reached the ultimate algorithm Like the knowledge that a Vermeer painting is out there Kawara’s art — as dry and cerebral as it can seem — reassures in its healing presence on earth friends knew of his whereabouts from postcards simply stamped with the words “I am still alive,” or “I got up at … ” with the time filled in I was lucky enough to “get up” with Kawara sitting in a silent chamber in the center of the Zwirner Gallery’s otherwise almost empty space and was recorded (along with painter Molly Heron) as we alternately read the 875 years between 38,685 C.E “Don’t read ironically.” He added that the woman “has the harder job because she reads the even dates and is responsible for going to the next line without losing her place.” I remember thinking about the implications of women being more aware of the cycle of time could you read that one again.” Amid this transcending of genres I also recall that my body became this raga Kawara is a kind of overcoded conceptual counterpart to artists like Agnes Martin who selflessly mined visual structure in subtle gridded paintings who brings a sensuousness and materiality to space Kawara defamiliarizes the everyday and creates a polycentric poetics with traces of something primordial The image above shows two firefighters carrying three of On Kawara’s monochromatic date paintings with white gloves instead of their usual fireproof gloves it spread quickly and was shared on social media by curators magazines and others to express shock and sympathy when the Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) in Frankfurt caught fire on Monday After the shock was over and an official press release stated that the fire had been extinguished nobody was hurt and ‘the artworks are taken into safety and the exhibition space seems to be undamaged’ doubts about the image’s authenticity arose and people were looking for clues that would confirm their suspicion the strange way the paintings are held and a supposedly old exhibition poster in the background provided ostensible evidence for the image as a fake People who are familiar with the MMK know that one room on the top floor of the Kuchenstück (engl piece of cake) – as Frankfurters refer to the unusual triangular shaped building by architect Hans Hollein – is dedicated to On Kawara the artist himself had selected the date paintings for the museum and had chosen one painting for each year beginning with ‘7 February 1966’ and ending with ‘6 June 1991’: the date of the MMK’s opening On Kawara made a special donation to the museum with nine further date paintings from the years 1992 to 2000 and completed the series of his works in the collection how many artworks have been added to the collection the date paintings have always been a constant Seeing these paintings being rescued in such a gentle way I never doubted the authenticity of Monday’s image The firefighters support the paintings from the back and wear white gloves like art handlers would do while their thick black working gloves swing from their jackets It shows why we trust firefighters with our lives why artists give their works to museums and where the term ‘curator’ comes from: from Latin cura This photograph is way more than just a nice headline image – it exposes the fundamental task of every museum: care Carina Bukuts is associate editor of frieze Emily McDermott profiles the artist and reflects on an arts practice that transcends boundaries of language and cultural identity After a series of new appointments for Berlin’s museums Carina Bukuts discusses the future of the city’s institutional landscape with Anselm Franke During his first years as MACRO's artistic director Lo Pinto has initiated a series of projects that break free from the limits of institutions Carina Bukuts revisits the city-wide exhibition that celebrated the architect’s centenary while searching for signs of Berlin’s future Recent exhibitions by Bea Schlingelhoff and Michaela Melián demonstrate that the city’s institutions are sensitively reckoning with their fascist pasts the Honduras-born-Florence-based artist explores the complex relationship between the origin and translations of indigenous knowledge From Rebecca Horn’s kinetic installations to Richard Sides’s matrix, assistant editor Carina Bukuts chooses the exhibitions not to miss From fetishistic sculpture gardens in Italy to a giant breast in New York the artist speaks with Carina Bukuts on what role gender and sex play in public art At the artist’s first institutional show in China real life slips into the shadows of a digital world seeking to supplant it On the occasion of the artist’s first major retrospective outside of the US Travis Diehl considers the 1985 painting ‘Untitled (Green Storefront)’ On the occasion of the centennial of the artist’s birth Lynne Tillman offers a close reading of a lesser known photograph On the occasion of their exhibition at Berlin's n.b.k Cory Archangel revisits a net art project by the collective On occasion of the artist’s posthumous retrospective at Ludwig Forum Aldeide Delgado unpacks the symbolism of La sentencia (1993)  “On Kawara—Silence” presents a rare—possibly final—chance to see so many of the artist’s paintings in one place Would On Kawara have immortalized the date that his posthumous exhibition opened at the Guggenheim the famously reclusive artist would likely have declined to attend the show’s preview and reception despite residing in New York surely his practiced hand would not have betrayed the significance of the date whose letterforms and numerals he would have inscribed in a close approximation of Gill Sans or Futura on a flat field of hand-mixed pigment curator Jeffrey Weiss insists that this impressive survey of some five decades of practice is not a retrospective; Kawara’s open-ended exploration of time is at once more ambitious and more granular than the designation allows the canvases are complemented by the newspaper from the memorialized day in question the latter assuming the dimensions of a folded broadsheet Both are preciously packaged in cardboard boxes that add a time-capsule element to the proceedings are not always exhibited alongside the paintings lest the prolix printed matter detract from the laconic purity of the otherwise unmoored paintings.) but offer a deconstructed flipbook worth of architectural vignettes on their obverse the cards disclose visual evidence of the other end of the dialogue Slight variations suggest that Kawara bought them in bulk while the presentation here evokes a storyboarded grid of architectural marvels—the UN headquarters is among Kawara’s favored protagonists—and wider cityscapes alike But these serendipitous associations are what might be called “data exhaust” today merely the observable symptoms of Kawara’s chronic obsession In “100 Million Years,” the rank of concrete-colored binders reads more like a Judd-esque sculpture than a row of filing-room fixtures a readymade with hundreds upon thousands of layers of content but only surfeit as its meaning (the pages within are printed with the titular number of years poster-sized 100-year calendar serves as a kind of registry for the “Today” paintings annotated with pips to indicate those days in which he spent up to seven hours completing them we can only wonder as to what externalities might have distracted Kawara from fulfilling his duty on the days not represented Like a misplaced “@” sign trailing the austere mononym Silence the spiral “logo” comes across as a blunt metaphor for time but germane as a subtle allusion to Wright’s space Insofar as the intermittent “Today” paintings transform Wright’s masterpiece into a three-dimensional (albeit impractical) calendar the spiral illustrates a characteristically plainspoken suggestion that the continuous ramp embodies the concept that time can be both linear and cyclical even as it flattens the space into a single (The uppermost ramp winds back the clock with paintings from each year an unusual gesture contra the narrative not only of the exhibition but of the architecture itself—a slight misstep from Weiss.) In this sense, Kawara, who was involved in the planning of the show, is more amenable to Wright’s original vision than other artists who have intervened throughout the building’s storied history. Thomas Messer, Museum Director from 1961–1988, famously likened Wright’s design to the “the circular geography of hell” (dramatically reinterpreted in Matthew Barney’s conquest of the atrium in Cremaster 3) but recent interlopers have subverted the antagonism of the abyss by filling it—perhaps to the chagrin of the architect who intended for it to remain devoid of art Nevertheless, Wright would have appreciated the apotheosis of this instinct, in 2013, when James Turrell transformed the rotunda into a concentric, ombré-suffused oculus in the site-specific installation “Aten Reign.” The blockbuster exhibition simultaneously revealed and concealed the skylight—restored to Wright’s original conceit in 1992—as though the virtual vertex of the inverted cone had been turned inside-out So too does Kawara honor Wright’s sacred architecture the homage further removed by a degree in the dimension of time as opposed to space Weiss relates that Kawara had long dreamed of exhibiting the “Today” series along the prescriptive plan of Wright’s Guggenheim its roundabout seriality a mute rejection of the modernist rectilinearity as the conventional container not only for art but people as well to paraphrase Weiss’s remarks—to the effect that Kawara’s reliance on natural language is immaterial the dated paintings (another unavoidable pun) endure as evidence of ritual a testament to self-discipline even as it transcends both the human hand and our ineluctable condition we can only wonder as to what externalities might have distracted Kawara from fulfilling his duty on the days not represented since he destroyed canvases that had not been completed intra diem If the fact that On Kawara—Silence opened just six months after Kawara died is coincidentally yet eerily symmetrical with the Guggenheim’s opening six month’s after Wright’s death in 1959 it’s also worth noting that the “Today” series falls short of its silver jubilee The work defies the half-century mark as an easy byword or a bound but the beauty of the series is precisely that it need not be perpetuated to exist in perpetuity but Kawara was never counting down the days so much as ticking them off Subscribe to our mailing list to receive the latest updates subscription deals delivered straight to your inbox