The Date Paintings of on Kawara Author(S): Anne Rorimer Source: Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol

The Date Paintings of On Kawara Author(s): Anne Rorimer Source: Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2 (1991), pp. 120-137+179-180 Published by: The Art Institute of Chicago Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4101587 . Accessed: 06/02/2014 16:24

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This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Date Paintings of On Kawara

ANNERORIMER Chicago

I havekeenly experienced consciousness of myself today, at 81years, exactly as I was consciousof myselfat f or 6years.Consciousness is motionless. And it is onlybecause of its motionlessnessthat we are ableto see themotion of thatwhich we call time.If time passes,it is necessarythat thereshould be somethingwhich remains static. And it is consciousnessof self which is static LEOTOLSTOI (191o)

Everylife is manydays, day after day. Wewalk throughourselves meeting robbers, ghosts,giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves. JAMESJOYCE, UL YSSES (1922)

When On Kawara painted his first date painting on January 4, 1966, he inauguratedthe Today Series, an ongoing, open-ended work now numberingmore than i,9oo canvases.Many of these paintings have been exhibited in series as extensive as one year'sproduction, and many have entered public and privatecollections either singly, in pairs,or in groups. In contrast to the other works that form part of Kawara'stotal oeuvre, the TodaySeries takes the form of traditionalpainting. While preserv- ing the conventionsof two-dimensionality,rectilinearity, and painted surface, Oct. 31, 1978, TodaySeries ("Tuesday")(fig. I), acquiredby the Art Institute in 1980, exemplifies the way in which Kawara has redefined traditional approachesto representionalimagery.1 Furthermore, it raisesthe question of its place within contemporary developments in painting and within the broader of the artist'saesthetic spectrum practice. FIGUREI. On Kawara (Japanese, born 1933). Each of Kawara'spaintings representsa single day- the one designated Series Oct.Y3, 1978, Today ("Tuesday"),1978. by the actualdate on which the work was made- and is consideredby him to Liquitexon canvas; I55.8 x 227.3cm. The be a single component or detail of the Today Series as a whole. Letters, ArtInstitute of Chicago,Twentieth-Century PurchaseFund Forthe last numerals,and punctuationmarks, scaled to the size of the canvas,are placed (1980.2). twenty-five across its center. the of been years,the Japanese conceptual artist On Kawara laterally Although they give impression having hasundertaken a series of eachof and abbreviatedwhen paintings, stenciled,the letters of the month, renderedin capitals whichrecords the date of itscreation. Almost with the numbersof the and are drawn necessary,along day year, skillfully by everyday, Kawara embarks on a newpainting, hand in white upon a darkbackground. The typeface, subjectivelychosen by largeor small in format, which he may or may the artist, subtly varies among paintings but is not determinedby an objec- notfinish by the end of the day. If he does not tively definable rationaleor system. The earliest works in the series are a finishthe canvas in that day, it is destroyed.

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This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ,jgI, AN

This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions cerulean blue, while others have been painted in red. For the most part, however, the background hues of the paintings tend to be dark gray-browns, gray-greens, or blues that verge on, but are never, black. Kawara applies four or five layers of paint to the background of each canvas and uses an additional six or seven layers of paint for the date. He obtains a rich matte surface but effaces all traces of the activity of brushwork. Always horizontal in format, the Today Series, or so-called "date paintings," may be one of eight predetermined sizes, the smallest being 8 x io x and the x inches inches (20.3 25.4 centimeters) largest 6i 89 (155.8 x 227.3 centimeters), like the one belonging to the Art Institute. Aside from the fact that a work must be started and completed on the actual day of its date, the artist does not impose a preconceived system of production. When they are small, as many as three paintings may be created in a day; on other days, none may be painted at all. If not finished by the close of the day, the partially completed painting is destroyed. Kawara, whose work has been exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, and his own native country, Japan, and who has been based in New York City since the mid-sixties, travels extensively. Thus, works of the easily manageable sizes are more likely to be executed when the artist is away from home. The significance of these paintings lies in the fact that they depict not only a date, but also their own date. If, historically, paintings have been fixed in time by a date on the front or back of the canvas, the date itself for Kawara becomes the subject of the painting and the sole embodiment of the work's Each date is if virtue FIGURE2. Installationview of eightpaintings figurative imagery. painting, moreover, unique only by froma seriesof fifteenHaystacks that Claude of its particular date. Despite the fact that paintings of dates necessarily Monetpainted in i89o-91,shown in the resemble each other, no combination of numerical or letter forms can ever be exhibition"A Day in the Country:Impression- identical with another. Letters and numbers, which may be perceived as ismand the French on at Landscape,' display independent objects, allow an otherwise immaterial date to assume material TheArt Institute of in 1984-85.In Chicago form. The date paintings thus succeed in turning abstract, temporal measure- additionto haystacks,Monet used a numberof ment into the concrete reality of painting. subjectsfor his seriespaintings, including Because of their thematic involvement with the Series poplars,cliffs, water lilies, and Rouen Cathedral. temporality, Today Withineach series, Monet explored the effect may tangentially be compared to the much earlier, nineteenth-century serial of timeon a scenein nature. paintings of Claude Monet -to the fifteen Haystacks of I890-91, for example

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This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (see fig. 2). By working in series, Monet sought to capture the infinite, FIGURE3.Jasper Johns (American, born 1930). fleeting qualities of observed reality engendered by the ceaseless, but o through9, 1959.Encaustic and collage on cm. Neue momentary, shifts in light - and, by extension, the passage of time-within canvas;52 x 89 Aachen, Galerie, Photo of theLeo the static format of canvases. Kawara, is not con- SammlungLudwig. courtesy multiple quite differently, Castelli NewYork. In his numberand cerned with the effects of times on a as was Gallery, specific changing given subject, alphabetpaintings of the 1950s,Johns used a but seeks instead to the notion of time itself. Monet, depict painterlystyle to representabstract symbols. The paintings of Kawara also may be viewed in comparison with the Muchof theinterest in Johns'so through9 lies number and alphabet paintings of the mid to late 195os by Jasper Johns (see in its boldbrushwork; in contrast, Kawara's date fig. 3). For Johns, as for Kawara, the numeral or letter offered an already flat, paintingsdisguise the artist'shand, thereby theinformational of the abstract form as a subject for delineation, and, in the work of both artists, emphasizing aspect subjectmatter. these symbols achieve a visual self-sufficiency. With regard to the work of Johns, as opposed to that of Kawara, the number or letter is absorbed into the dominant materiality of paint and brushwork. Johns subordinated numerical or lexical symbols to the demands of painterliness rather than to the demands of quantification or semantics. In canvases by Kawara, however, numbers and letters retain their informational purpose. If, for Johns, numbers and letters used as formal images primarily played a painterly role, for Kawara they maintain their symbolic function within the structure of a given date, as well as within the structure of the painted surface per se. The Today Series reflects Kawara's understanding of the critical issues associated with painting that, as of the late 195os and early i960s, confronted artists internationally. The date paintings acknowledge and elaborate upon the significant ideas of artists such as Frank Stella or Robert Ryman in America, or Piero Manzoni in Europe, while they introduce original and unprecedented considerations of their own. At the end of the 1950s, in the wake of Abstract Expressionism and the School of Paris, a number of artists sought to revitalize painting, having found that the gestural handling of paint characteristic of the decade had been drained of its original power and

THE DATEPAINTINGS OF ON KAWARA 123

This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FIGURE4. Frank Stella (American, born 1936). ClintonPlaza, 1959. Black enamel on canvas; 251X 189cm. Chicago, private collection. Kawara'sdate paintings are not unlike Stella's blackpaintings of thelate 195osand Robert Ryman'spost-i957 paintings (see fig. 5) in their preoccupationwith issues of representation. ClintonPlaza makes no clearreference to a realityoutside the work itself, leaving the viewerto wonderabout the role of illusion in art.

meaning.Speaking in generalterms, it may be said that a numberof artistson both sides of the Atlantic during this period sought to define a pictorial surfaceas something totally separatefrom any reality externalto it. For this reason, these artists aimed to negate forms of expressionovertly possessing emotionalor transcendentalovertones. The question of how to make a painting that might exist as its own, nonreferentialreality may be seen as the most crucial considerationof the years just prior to Kawara'sfirst date painting.An often quoted statementof FrankStella's is that in his paintings"only what can be seen is there,"and that there is nothing there "besides the paint on the canvas."2This statement succinctly summarizesthe goals of those artists desiring to removepersonal and illusionistic referencesfrom painting.Stella's black paintingsof 1958-60 (see fig. 4), for example, display neither figurativerepresentation nor hier- archicalcompositional arrangement. They seek to conceal signs of the artist's interventioninto the process of creationby eliminatingthe brushstrokewith its tell-tale evidence of the artist'shand. Foregroundand backgroundmerge in works that attemptto abolish illusionism of any kind.

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This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Similarly,Robert Ryman took issue with earlier concepts of painting, maintainingas well that "whatpainting is, is exactly what people see."3Since 1957,he has devoted himself to paintingswhose "image"is the paint surface itself once it has been applied to its support (see fig. 5). "Thereis never a questionof what to paint,"according to Ryman, "but only how to paint.The how of paintinghas alwaysbeen the image- the end product."4Paintings by Ryman are purely self-referentialin as much as they reflect only upon the activity behind their own painting.Canvases covered in white acrylic suggest the endless variationof surface texture brought about by the applicationof paint. In works by Ryman,this applicationis observedas being the visual end itself. Before his death in 1963at the age of thirty,Piero Manzoni had come to certain far-reachingconclusions, as his "Achrome" (meaning "no color") paintingsattest. With the adventof his first Achromein 1957,Manzoni began to realize the principlesof his painting,later expressedin his I960 text, "Free Dimension":

It is not a question of shapingthings, nor of articulatingmessages. ....For are not fantasising,abstraction and self-expression empty fictions? There is nothingto be said: there is only to be, to live.5 Ratherthan being painted, each Achrome simply came "to be."The first Achromes were made from canvassquares, which were soaked in the white, water-absorbantclay known as kaolin and then glued together side by side. When dry, the kaolin-soaked canvas became an earthy presence. Manzoni embraceda rangeof differentmaterials - from cloth to fur to kaolin-covered bread rolls-in his quest for a "white surfacethat is simply a white surface

FIGURE5. Robert Ryman (American, born TheElliott Room: 1930). CharterV, 1987. Acrylicon fiberglasswith aluminum; 243 x 243 cm.The Art Institute of Chicago,Gift of Gerald S. Elliott(1990.132.5). Since the earlyi96os, RobertRyman has painted exclusively in white, exploringthe subtlety of its huesand creating worksthat invite contemplative attention to the natureand texture of theirpainted surface.

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This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions and nothing else."6Although their means are as disparateas their results, artists like Stella, Ryman, and Manzoni havein common the basic motive of endowing paintingwith its own reality,exempt from any figurative,compo- sitional, or psychological references. Works in Kawara'sToday Series dispense with illusionisticreference in a mannerparallel to the paintingsof these three artists.Theletters and numbers of the day's date replace traditionalimagery and composition. Instead, the placement and resulting "configuration"of abstractsymbols lead naturally to "figuration,"while the conventionsof composition yield to the demands of "composing" the date. Kawara'spaintings, like those of Stella, Ryman, or Manzoni, are self-sufficient and self-reflexive statements.The elements of each date serve as the curvilinearand linear parts of a coherent visual FIGURE6. Installation view of a date painting whole. In the sense that one cannot "see" a date, the offer fromthe Today Series by On Kawara. Cincinnati actually paintings no information about their to external but within the ArtMuseum, RSM Company Collection. Photo: relationship reality, JohnVinci. While Kawara's date paintings are confines of the painted canvas, the date-otherwise a mere abstraction- self-referentialinthe sense that Stella's and assumes a concrete form and shape. Within the very content of the work, Ryman'sworks are, they nevertheless dorefer therefore,the TodaySeries demonstrateshow a paintingcan be a self-reliant to anoutside withtheir dates. The reality presence,independent of (yet not disregarding)external points of reference. relationof thedate tothe measure- paintings virtue of as a date, each Kawaraasserts that it is mentand oftime is By existing painting by representation powerfully its date, refers to a time suggestedby this installation view from a "present,"although paradoxically perforce, already businessoffice, where Kawara's Mar 21, 1975is past (see fig. 6). surroundedbya calendar,a message pad, and The solid backgroundhue of each date paintingvaries slightly from day otherparaphernalia thatare no doubt dated. to day and may change from gray to blue or, occasionally,to red so that the

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This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FIGURE7. AdReinhardt (American, i913-1967). AbstractPainting # II, 1961-66.Oil on canvas; 152.4x 152.4cm. The Art Institute of Chicago, Giftof Dr.and Mrs. Irving Forman (1985.Io67). Forthe last thirteen years of his life,Ad Reinhardtpushed his abstractart to newlimits in blackpaintings that examined the means of distillingpainting to its ownessence within a fieldof monochromaticcolor. Reinhardt's approachto colorhas much in commonwith thatof Kawara,who uses a uniformtone in eachpainting as he variesthe color from work to work. question arises as to what role color performs in these works. Stella's early black paintings, Ryman's white paintings, and Manzoni's "colorless" works similarly aim to avoid the representational, symbolic, or emotional associations that color can create. In the late 195os, the issue of color was explicitly dealt with in contrasting manners by Ad Reinhardt in America and by Yves Klein in Europe. Their similar use of one hue bears comparison with the single background color of Kawara's date paintings, although in each instance their ultimate intentions differ. Whereas Reinhardt after 1953 began to paint only with black in order to employ, like Manzoni, a "noncolor," Klein after 1957 turned to the almost exclusive use of the deep, electric cobalt blue now known as "International Klein Blue." With the desire to eradicate all extraneous and distracting visual elements from painting, Reinhardt sought the reduction of color to noncolor by pushing it to the edge of perception (see fig. 7). Klein operated in quite the opposite spirit, attempting to elevate color to mythical proportions while claiming that "through color, I experience a complete identification with space, I am truly free."7 Reinhardt wrote that "there is something wrong, irresponsible and mindless about color, something impossible to control."8 Klein, however, declared that "before the colored surface one finds oneself directly before the matter of the soul."' From opposite vantage points, both artists defined painting as a reality unto itself, with Reinhardt wishing to distill it to its own essence1o and Klein believing that "paintings are living, autonomous presences.""'1Reinhardt viewed color as an interference in the expression of purity, while Klein considered it the means of envisioning an infinite and immaterial reality outside of "the psychological world of our inherited optics."12

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FIGURE8.On Kawara. Cardboard box and Kawara'sattitude toward color falls in between the opposing aesthetic newspapersforOct. 3Y, 1978, Today Series positions of Reinhardt and Klein. In contrast to both, Kawaramakes no AnneRorimer. ("Tuesday')(see fig. i). Photo: claim for color in either a positive or negative way. He neither attempts to Inthis andthe next, we can see an figure suppress it nor does he espouse a belief in its power to surpass mundane expressionofthe particularity of each date on Color, for Kawara,indicates the subtractionof The white letter- whichKawara paints. Each of thedate paintings reality. light. and colored of the date in to the is accompaniedbya newspaper(or, as in the ing background paintings,alludes, essence, caseof fig. 9, a portionof a newspaper)from contrastbetween the light of day and the dark of night.13While color lends theday and place that Kawara painted the work. definitionto objects,it may also carrywith it symbolic or emotionalassocia- tions; but in Kawara'swork, color does not carry such associations,and can be analyzed, finally, only in terms of saturation,value, or hue. Within its painted context, the color of each work is as unequivocalas its date, and no two paintingsare exactly alike. The question of how color might relate to the events of the day or to Kawara'sstate of mind-the question, that is, of why the artist chooses a certaincolor for a date painting- cannot be definitivelyanswered. Whether a date paintingis bright red or dark blue or one of many dark grays makes no thematicdifference except for the fact of differenceitself. Slightchanges from one gray to another,as well as greatershifts from gray to blue or red, spare these works from any dogmatism.Rather, the backgroundcolor of the date paintings,unspecified with regardto particularassociations, allows for infinite diversity.A red or blue is as meaningfulas one of the many variedtones of gray found in the majorityof date paintings. By imposing limits but not restrictionson his choice of color, Kawara establishesan endless potential for nuance.The unlimited variationof color means that the artist's choice of shade or hue loses its explicit meaning. Subjectivityand objectivity of selection cancel out each other, for the subtle differentiationin color leads to the appearanceof sameness while simulta-

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This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions neously disprovingit. Becausepigmentation is an element of perceptionthat "colors" whatever is seen in an inexplicablebut multifaceted manner,the color of each date painting, like its date, may elicit certain thoughts but remainsa quality unto itself without referringto particularideas or feelings. The indeterminabledegree to which physiologicaland psychologicalfactors play a part in human vision thus enhances the dual sense of factual imme- diacy and impenetrablemystery manifestedby these works. Kawara'sdate paintingsare based on a realityexperienced as the temporal segments that record the continuous change from night to day and vice versa. Each work possesses a subtitle and, also, is accompaniedeither by a hand-madecardboard box that contains a newspaperof that day from the city where the work was painted (see fig. 8), or by a portion of a newspaper page that is glued to the inside lid of the box (see fig. 9). The subtitles range in content from long quotations to short phrases, from a notation of a personalthought to an internationalevent. In recent years,they merely have FIGURE9. On Kawara. Dec. I7, 1979,Today stated the day of the week. The box affirms the painting'sdefinition as an Series("Monday") (with cardboard box and on x object in its own right, while the subtitles and newspaperanchor the work of newspaper),1979. Liquitex canvas;46.2 cm.New York, The Museum of Modern art to - while it with - the 61.7 juxtaposing existing, daily reality. Art,Blanchette Rockefeller Fund. As this The inclusion of a or section of a in the box figure newspaper newspaper shows,a datepainting may be displayedin belongingto eachpainting accentuates the dichotomy between art and every- conjunctionwith its accompanyingnewspaper day actuality while simultaneouslylinking them together.The fact that the andbox.

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THE DATEPAINTINGS OF ON KAWARA 129

This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FIGUREIO. Pablo Picasso (Spanish,1881-1973). Bottle Vieux of Marc,Glass, Newspaper, 19i3. Charcoaland pasted papers; 62.6 x 46.9cm. Paris,Le Musee national d'art moderne. Kawara'suse of newspapershas a distinguished lineage:Picasso drew inspiration from them duringthe earlypart of thecentury, and Andy Warhol(see fig. 11)used them in the i96osto commentironically on thepervasiveness of mass-producedimages.

boxed newspaper may or may not be exhibited with its painting emphasizes the independence and interdependence of the two. Since the early part of this century, when Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso introduced newsprint into their collages (papiers colles), the daily newspaper has acted as a representa- tive from the nonart, material world, as distinct from the fictional world of the painted canvas or drawing. In Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Newspaper of 1913 (fig. io), Picasso, interestingly enough, curtailed the word "Journal" (newspaper) to "Jour" (day), perhaps as an "in" joke within the work, since the penciled bottle of marc is "vieux" (old) while the newsprint pertains to that day. In contradistinction to the artists of Cubist collage, who integrated newspaper fragments into an overall pictorial fabric, Kawara deliberately keeps the newpaper physically separate from the painting. Metaphorically drawing a distinct line between the reality of art and nonart, Kawara nonetheless refers to their "real," if intangible, connection. Painting and newspaper are thus cross-referenced by Kawara without being literally grafted together. The newspaper accompanying the date paintings grounds them in the world of constant flux and continuing events (as opposed to the supposed "timeless" context of art). In this regard, one is reminded of paintings by Andy Warhol of the early i96os that depict front-page headlines from tab-

130 RORIMER

This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions loids or newspapers (see fig. ii). In Warhol's case, the newspaper provided already existing mass-produced, gripping, nonart imagery with an emphasis on shock-value. For Kawara, the newspaper is not subject matter for direct translation into painting as it is for Warhol, but rather is a temporal gauge of ongoing, daily reality. The newspaper is part of a date painting in its entirety, but remains in its own nonart domain at the same time, thereby providing a link to those phenomena-however down-to-earth yet ungraspable they may be-that, available to all, transpire from day to day. In addition, the conjunction of newpaper and date painting substitutes for the artist's handwritten signature an "authoritative" mark of validation based on real, if sensational, occurences. Transitional works by Kawara of the early I960s suggest artistic interests that would culminate in the date paintings. A work entitled Nothing, Some- thing, Everything (fig. 12), for example - one of hundreds of drawings of this period - anticipates the Today Series in various ways. Black, Letraset, capital letters form the word "something." A pencil line encloses the letters within a rectangular perimeter that follows the shape of the paper. The word "some-

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FIGUREII. AndyWarhol (American, 1928- 1987).A Boyfor Meg,1962. Synthetic polymer on canvas;182.9 x 132 cm.Washington, D.C., NationalGallery of Art(1971.87.11). Photo courtesyof theLeo Castelli Gallery, New York.

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This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions thing" is singled out, isolated, aggrandized. As the subject of pictorial representation, it stands alone and demands consideration as to exactly what it might stand for: a quantity or an object? For how much or what? Literally out of context and therefore providing no supporting verbal information, the letters of Nothing, Something, Everything assume a visual form. Set within the outline of the traditional rectangular format, they come to be "read" as shapes. The word, therefore, becomes the subject of the picture as both a two-dimensional object and as an abstract signifier. A drawing entitled Egg (1964), whose capital letters, outlined in pencil, nearly fill a rectangular penciled boundary, and a 1964 drawing called Rulers, depicting two suspended yardsticks, similarly set the stage for Kawara's major work to come. The three letters spelling "egg" proclaim their independence as visual elements that still partake in the creation of verbal meaning. Rulers subtly confronts the question of perspective and illusion. The yardsticks, drawn in pencil, appear to hang at different distances from the spectator, in the space of a sketchily implied room, because the left-hand ruler, appearing closer, is longer than the right-hand one. By having drawn FIGURE12. OnKawara. Nothing, Something, tools, which in practical life convey precise information about reality, Kawara Letrasetand on Everything,1963. pencil paper; points to the paradoxical nature of two-dimensional representation. In this x cm.Photo of theartist. 20.5 30.5 courtesy drawing the two rulers have significance solely as pictorial elements, and not Earlyin his career,Kawara began to use as useful implements that register distance factually. As such, they "rule out," languageas a subjectfor his drawingsand so to the false rendition of three-dimensional its otherworks. The word "something" here exists speak, space by revealing outsidea clearverbal context, and therefore fictitious nature. In these early works, image and language merge as "some- assumesa compellingvisual dimension. thing" or "egg" on the pictorial plane, which, as Rulers reminds us, remains

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flat despite its potential ability to deceive. Having rejected the use of illusion- FIGURE13. On Kawara.Questions: "Give istic devices, these drawings foreshadow the literal and factual quality of the Sentences...," 1964.Pencil on paper;35.5 x 43 cm.Photo of the artist.Kawara's ensuing date paintings. courtesy understandingof the visual patterning of words Other works preceding the date paintings, such as Questions: "Give is evidentin this work,where the Sentences..." and Code lend further into Kawara's early myriad (fig. 13) (1965), insight possibilitiesfor sentences with the verb "to artistic method. The former work two columns of different presents idioms, take"are listed matter-of-factly. handwritten within a square, using the verb "to take" as a point of departure for phrases such as to take off, to take out, to take part in, etc. Written above the two columns is the directive, "Give sentences with the following." Pro- vided with the building blocks for producing endless sentences, the viewer nonetheless has access only to what is visibly there, to the pattern made by the handwritten words. The latter work, Code, translates the text of a narra- tive into horizontal lines comprised of colored markings. Resembling a kind of generic script, they forfeit their original verbal content. Even if a computer were to break the code by translating the colors determined by the artist into words, the answer to the question, inherent in this piece, as to what distin- guishes one form of meaning from another - the verbal or the visual - would not ultimately be answered. Evolving from works such as these, the date

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This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions PARIS ET SES 5478 - L'eglise de la Madeleine (1806). ' 30 19J76JIN MERVEILLES,

I GOTUP AT.RANK ONEGAN 1018 A.M 221 E. 28 THST. SAPT. 15- NEWYORK - i0.i. .. 6---- ...... N.Y...... FIGURE14. OnKawara. I Got Up at io. 8 A.M, 10016, 1976.Rubber-stamped inkon postcard.Photo On KawaraTATS UNIS courtesyof theartist. For eleven years, Kawara Hotel Le Royal ET-- U- senta seriesof to selectedpeople postcards 212. Bd. Raspail I announcingwhen he beganeach day. Each of 75014 Kawara'spostcards and telegrams (see fig. 15) FranceoParis ouctionLECONTE markedclearly the date and place of its origin, ------andfunctioned as partof anongoing series.

paintings rely on the components of written communication in order to make their particularvisual statement. Paintings by Kawara,with their stark and striking presentationof the date on which each was created, point to the moment of their genesis and thus demarcatetheir own place within the span of history.If, on one level, a date is mute as an image, on anotherlevel it standsfor the infinite numberof events- from the most personalto the most universal- that "takeplace" on specific dates. Like temporal signposts, the date paintings emblematically punctuate their environment,whether they are inserted into the midst of other works of art or isolated on a wall by themselves. By means of his art, Kawarabrings time-which may be thought of as the major organizationalforce behind human experience and consciousness- into tangible, representationalview. In addition to the TodaySeries, Kawara'sactivity as an artist encompasses a number of other significant, ongoing works that similarlyseek to position themselves- and by extension, the viewer-with referenceto his own, ultimatelyfinite lifespan,invisibly set

134 RORIMER

This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions against the background of spatial and temporal infinity. Since 1966, in tandem with the introduction of the date paintings, Kawara has maintained a series of loose-leaf notebooks that comprise a work entitled I Read. Sequential pages, correlated with each day of the year on which he has made a painting, contain clippings from the daily press, which Kawara glues on a single, standard sheet of ordinary graph paper stamped with the day, month, and year. The early clippings for I Read provided Kawara with the subtitles for the paintings of that particular day and, in this way, initially inspired the idea for this work. Additionally, the clippings are taken from newspapers published in the place where the date painting was done. Furthermore, each day since 1968 Kawara has kept a similar series of notebooks to form the work I Went, as well as a work in the same notebook format called I Met. The former group of notebook volumes contains a record of the artist's itinerary that he marks in red ink on a xeroxed map of the city where he happens to be. Documenting his daily course along city streets, Kawara translates his movement from one destination to another (necessitated by errands, sightseeing, or the normal demands of life in gen- eral) into the planar linearity of drawing. The latter set of volumes consist of individual pages, also stamped with the date, on which Kawara has typed the name(s) of anyone known to him whom he might have encountered through- out the twenty-four hour period. In this work, language, in place of line, reveals those points of interpersonal contact that connect over time to form a social framework for individual existence. Kept together by the artist, these three works (I Read, I Went, and I Met) bring abstract time into view vis-a"- vis the concrete reality of people, places, or events by utilizing available systems of representation - the news media, maps, or proper names - to formally convey their content. Kawara also takes advantage of existing modes of communication to deliver, quite literally, his aesthetic message. From 1968 until 1979, he consis- tently mailed a series of postcards, one per day, to two selected people. In

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FIGURE15. On Kawara.IAm StillAlive, 1978. Telegram.Photo courtesy of the artist.

THEDATE PAINTINGS OF ON KAWARA 135

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136 RORIMER

This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions every case, the cardspresent a typical, horizontalscene from, or overviewof, the place where Kawarawas living or visiting at the time (see fig. 14). The recipient of a card would thus be informed as to the artist's geographical whereabouts by means of a pictorial short-hand image from a particular location. On the other side of the card, Kawarastamped the time, to the exact minute, at which he startedthe day,prefaced by "I got up at."The custom of sending postcards,in essence, provided him with a method for questioning the "timelessness"of art, allowing him insteadto emphasizeits potential as a vehicle for communicationand representationover its (market) value as a permanent,precious object."4 Telegrams (and, more recently, Mailgrams), which Kawara has sent intermittentlysince 1970 to selected recipients,likewise rely on modern-day modes of communication(see fig. i5). The urgent message from the artist reads, "I am still alive,"reminding the receiverof the brevity of individual existence. Kawarademonstrates, as well, the fact that a work of art need not be restrictedto traditionalrepresentational forms, or exist as a singular and unique object, or be acquired through the commercial channels of buying and selling. Two works, One Million Years-Past (fig. I6) and One Million Years- Future(fig. 17), convey the vast,yet measurable,expanse of time from 998031 B.C. through A.D. 1969 and from A.D. 1981 through IooI98o.'1Nine rows of sequentiallytyped columns of individualyears, separated by decade,cover the white, 81/2 X II-inch pages that are contained within the two sets of notebooks, numbering ten volumes apiece. By representing the last one million years and the next million to follow within the real space of a book or, more precisely, within a "volume,"in the double sense of the word, Kawara imbues the otherwise immaterial concept of time with concrete materiality.As in all of his works, numbers and letters fuse their symbolic, representationalpurpose with their function as visual shapes. In this way, Kawaraintegrates physical form with thematic content in the realizationof works that illustratethe humancapacity to grasp time and space in abstract, visible terms.

FIGURE16. On Kawara. Pages from One Million Years-Past,1969. Photo courtesy of the artist. Thiswork and its companionpiece, One Million Years-Future(fig. 17), visualize a vastexpanse of timein theconcrete terms of numerical representation,here contained within these massivevolumes.

FIGUREI7. OnKawara. One Million Years-- Future,1981. Photo courtesy of theartist.

THEDATE PAINTINGS OF ON KAWARA 137

This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Notes 12. TheBust of CardinalAntonio Barberini was first identified by Lavin(note io), pp. 138-39. 13. Forthe bust,which is in the Museodi Roma,see FrancescoMochi (note 4), p. 71, no. 18. WARDROPPER,"A New Attributionto FrancescoMochi" pp. 102-119. 14.Lavin (note ic), pp. 137-38.V. Martinelli,"Alcune opere inedite di Fran- i. Thebust measures cm cm and 40.5 high,33 wide, 29 cm deep;with its socle cesco Mochi',"Arti Figurativi2 (1946),pp. 72-79, proposeda laterdating. it is 69 cm high.It is not clearwhether the socle is originalto the bust.It was 15.Charles Oulmont, "Collection M. E Gentilidi Giuseppi',"Les Arts 162 not used to displaythe bust whenphotographed in 1917(see note I5),when it appearedon a standcovered with brocaded velvet. The silhouette, however, ('917), p. i8. is compatiblewith periodsocles (see fig. 13), and Mochiis knownto have i6. See Lavin(note o0). usedblack marble socles (see fig. ii). AnthonyRoth first proposed identifying See Wittkower(note no. this bustas Mochi's,and he contributedmany ideas in supportof this attribu- 17. 4), p. 199, 31. tion.A numberof scholars havegenerously offered observations on the bust, i8. See, forexample, New York,The MetropolitanMuseum of Art, TheArt of and I would like to thank particularly JenniferMontagu, Anthony Radcliffe, Caravaggio,exh. cat. (I985),no. 66; or MaurizioFagulo dell'Arco, Bernini: andDiane David. Una introduzioneal gran teatrodel baroco(Rome, 1967), nos. 40, 248. 2. Rudolf Art and in ed. Wittkower, Architecture Italy:i6ro- 170, 3rd (Har- 19. UlrichMiddeldorf, Sculptures from the SamuelH . KressCollection: Euro- mondsworthand Baltimore, 1973),p. 85-. pean Schools,Fourteenth to NineteenthCenturies (London and New York, John Catalogueof Italian 3. HowardHibbard, Bernini (Harmondsworth and Baltimore,1971), p. 84. 1976), pp. 23-24, figs. 43-44; Pope-Hennessy, Sculpturein the Victoriaand Albert Museum (London, 1964), no. 176,fig. 187. 4. In responseto the fundamentalstudy by RudolfWittkower, Gian Lorenzo See MarietteL. Fransolet, sculpteurd'Urbain VIII, Bernini:The Sculptor of theRoman Baroque, 2nd ed. (London,1966), Irving 2c. FrancoisDuquesnoy, (Brussels, Lavinhas maderevolutionary contributions ranging from the redatingof early I197-1643 1942). worksin "FiveNew YouthfulSculptures by Gian LorenzoBernini and a 21. G. Fiori,"Notizie biographiche di GianAntonio e EugenioBianchi, Fran- Revised Art Bulletin to a BolletinoStorico Piacentino Chronology" 50o,3 (970), PP- 223-48, synthetic cescoMochi e GiulioMazzoni, (Jan.-Junei98o), of the works' in Berniniand the Unity VisualArts analysis meaning of tbe pp. 63-75. (NewYork and London,i980). Recentstudies of Algardihave been crowned 22. See Lavin(note ic). by JenniferMontagu's Alessandro Algardi (New Haven,Conn., and London, WhileMochi still lacksa the 1985). majormonograph, cataloguespublished 23. GiovanniBattista Passeri, Vite depittori, scultori ed architetticbe banno aroundthe anniversaryof his birthin I980advanced knowledge of his career, lavoratoin Roma.. .(772; reprint,Leipzig and Vienna, 1934), p. 133. particularlyFrancesco Mochi, 1y8o-I654, exh. cat. (Florence,1981). 24. C. D'Onofrio,Roma vista da Roma(Rome, 1967), pp. 150-53,415-16. This See Santi 5. Jack Spalding, di Tito (New York,1982). An excellentrecent possibilitywas suggestedby DianeDavid in a letterto the author. overviewis AnthonyRadcliffe and CharlesAvery, Giambologna, Iy29- i6c8. Marilyn BarberiniDocuments and Inventoriesof Art Sculptorto theMedici, exh. cat. (London,1978). 25. Aronberg-Lavin, (NewYork, 1975). 6. In additionto G. Fiocco'sbasic studyon Marianiin Le Arti 3 (194c-41), 26. Italian Gentiledi livedin Paris in the twentieth M. C. Donatiexamined Mariani, Maderno, and Mochiin "Gliscultori delle by birth, Giuseppe early Hewrote occasional articles on art,such as "Aproposito della 'Morte CappellaPaolina in S. M. Maggiore,"Commentari 2-3 (1967),pp. 231-60.See century. della attribuitaa His also A. NavaCellini, "Stefano Maderno, Francesco Vanni e GuidoReni a S. Vergine' Giotto,"Rassegna d'arte 15(1915), pp. 187-88. collectionwas Italianpaintings of the Renaissanceand Baroque, but Ceciliain Trastevere,"Paragone 20 (1969), no. 227, p. i8f; and RogerCraig primarily also includednorthern (byPeter Paul Rubens and others), as well as Burns,"Camillo Mariani: Catalyst of the Sculptureof the RomanBaroque" painting some sculpture,such as a terracottastudy attributed to Bernini.Some of his (Ph.D.diss., Johns Hopkins University, I980). worksnow in importantcollections include El Greco'sHoly Familyin the 7. Theseobservations were made by MaddalenaDeLuca Savelli in Francesco ClevelandMuseum of Art, Gentileda Fabriano'sMadonna in the Museumof Mochi(note 4), p. 40, no. 3. FineArts, Houston, and two Canaletto vedutas in TheArt Institute of Chicago (whichentered the collectionmuch earlier than the Bustof a Youth). 8. Fora discussionof the equestrianmonuments, particularly with regardto theirrecent conservation, see Bologna,Museo Civico Archeologico, I bronzi di Piacenza:Rilievi e figure di FrancescoMochi dai monumentiequestri of On farnesiani,exh. cat. (1986).See also GaetanoPantaleoni, II Barocodel Mocbhi RORIMER,"The Date Paintings Kawara,"'pp. 120-137. nei CavalliFarnesiani (Piacenza, 1975). Thisarticle is basedon an earlieressay published in Le ConsortiumDijon, On 9. See IrvingLavin, Bernini and the Crossingof St. Peters (NewYork, 1968). Kawara,exh. cat. (1985). Togetherwith Bernini'sand Mochi'ssculptures, Duquesnoy's Saint Andrew i. This paintingwas exhibitedin the museum's73rd American Exhibition, andAndrea Bolgi's Saint Helena completed the planfor four statues. See also June 9-August 5, 1979,organized by A. JamesSpeyer and Anne Rorimer, JenniferMontagu, "A Modelby FrancescoMochi for the 'SaintVeronica,"' alongwith otherworks by Kawara.It was installednext to anotherpainting BurlingtonMagazine 124 (July1982), pp. 432-36. of the same size, July 16, i969, TodaySeries ("Neil Armstrong, Edwin E. io. IrvingLavin, "Duquesnoy's 'Nano di Crequi'and Two Busts by Francesco Aldrin,Jr., Michael Collins"), which was paintedon the day of the launching Mochi,'Art Bulletin52 (1970),p. 144. of the Apollo 11to the moon,as its subtitle(which names the astronautsof thatvoyage) suggests. II. See, forexample, C. Gnudiand Denis Mahon, II Guercino(Bologna, 1968), in Art:A Critical p. 163f;Los Angeles County Museum of Art,Guido Reni, i175- 642,exh. cat. 2. Quoted Gregory Battcock,ed., Minimal Anthology(New (1988). York,1968), p. 157. NOTESFOR PAGES 103-125 179

This content downloaded from 198.40.29.65 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:24:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 3. Quotedin PhyllisTuchman, "An Interview with Robert Oeuvres sur exh. cat. no. 106. The bears a Rvman,"Artforum papier, (1984), drawing strange (May1971), p. 53. inscription on the bottom, "Esquisse 1937," labeling it as a sketch on the drawing itself, a unique occurrence in Chagall's work. Such information is Quotedin Christel "Robert in InK. 4. Sauer, Ryman:Introduction," Zurich, usually written later on the back of a mount (e.g., no. 104), either when a work Halle fir internationaleneue Kunst, Robert Ryman, exh. cat. (1980), p. 15. is catalogued or when it is sent off for exhibition. The drawing also contains all of the details of the work, in contradistinction to usual Quotedin London,Tate Gallery, Piero Paintings,Reliefs and original Chagall's 5. Manzoni: method nos. even when the sketch Objects,exh. cat. (0974), sketching (e.g., 12, 30-32, 37, 15, 129), P.47. is a blocked-out cartoon for a painting (e.g., nos. 76-77). It thus seems logical 6. Ibid. to conclude that the sketch was drawn after rather than for the painting. Chagall's practice of making sketches after his paintings is amply docu- 7. Quotedin YvesKlein, "The Monochrome Adventure," in Houston, Institute mented, although this is not always acknowledged (e.g., nos. 38, i00). If the forthe Arts, Rice University, Yves Klein, 1928-1i962, A Retrospective,exh. cat. sketch was done at the time Chagall changed the painting, it would also (1982-83),p. 220. explain his mistake in dating, as though he were trying to remember afterward when it had been painted. 8.Quoted in Margit Rowell, "Ad Reinhardt: Style as Recurrence'," inNew York, Mever (note and n. SolomonR. Guggenheim Museum, Ad Reinhardt and Color, exh. cat. (I98c), 5. 3), p. 414, p. 609 9. P.23. 6. Cabiers dart 15, 1-2 (1940), p. 34. There is no photograph of the painting in the for this show at the Galerie Mai in Paris 26-Feb. 26, 9. YvesKlein, "The War: A LittlePersonal Mythology of the in catalogue (Jan. Monochrome"' 194.). However, Alexandre Benois's review, which accompanied the exhibition Houston,Institute for the Arts, Rice University (note 7), P. 218. photographs in Cabiers dart, suggests (but does not state) that the original io. SeeNew York, Solomon R. GuggenheimMuseum (note 8), p. 26. details were still visible (see quotation on page 143, cited in note 16). This could have been either before moved to Gordes in Easter 11.Klein quoted in Houston,Institute for the Arts, Rice University (note 7), 7. Chagall 1940 or the he remained there, while the Germans France. p. 221. during year occupied During this time, the painting was in his hands. 12.Ibid., p. 224. 8. Mever (note 3), pp. 4'1-,2; and Sidnev Alexander, Mlarc Chagall (New 13.Suggested by the artist in conversationwith the author, January 1985. 0ork, 1978), pp. 327, 332-33. Arts 12 the seems to have 14.The series stopped in 1979,when the rubber stamp Kawara used on the 9. Liturgi-al (May 1944), p. 65. Although painting been exhibited in the United between and (Marc postcardswas stolenfrom his briefcasein Stockholm.This work may be States 1941 i946 Chagall, Museum of Modern Art New I resumedsomeday. See Stockholm, Moderna Museet, On continuitv/ "Chronology"' p. j, typescript, Library, York), Kawara: have been unable to find a catalogue listing, a description, or photograph of exh.cat. discontinuity,I963-i79, (1980-81),p. IO5. it preceding 1944. However, it seems unlikely that the changes were made at that date in in New York. A York is also 15.The beginning/concluding dates vary according to the yearin which or, fact, pre-New dating suggested Kawarastarted the volumes.One Million Years-Past exists in twelveedi- by the fact that similar "smudged" "Ich bin Jude" signs appear in other works executed in New York-such as The of tions,while editions of One Years-Futureare still in )Mllow Cru*cifiion 194' (lower right) Million progress,eight and The of Mever 3 and Cruciped 1944 (main figure) (see [note , PP. 456-57; ornine having been completed. Lionello Venturi, Chagall [.New York, 194 5, pl. 59) -but there are no photographs to indicate that these signs were altered rather than painted that way from the start. White AMISHAI-MAISELS,"Chagall's Crucifixion,"pp.138-153. io. Chagall, "Chronologv" (note 9), p. 3; and James Johnson Sweenev, lMarc Chagall (New York, 1946), p. 62. I. See,for example, Fr. A.-M., "Tu ne feraspas d'images," sacr L'Art (July- The Aug.i96i), pp. 7-8; Jean Cassou, Chagall (London, 1965), pp. 240-48; Jean- Ii. See, for example, Gerhard Schoenberner, Mellow Star (London, 1969), and Fr. "Arbeit Macht Frei" i. PaulCrespelle, Chagall (New York, 1970), P. 214; Walter Erben, Marc Chagall pp. i8-i9; Reichental, (Bratislava, 1946), pl. L'Artsacr (London,I966), pp. 112-16; Raissa Maritain, "Chagall," (July-Aug. 12. Encnclopedia judaica, vol. 8 (Jerusalem, 1971), p. 839. 1950),pp. 26-30;Cornelia Siissman and Irving Siissman, "Marc Chagall, Abraham "Al Tira Avdi Ya'akov" not mv servant Painterof theCrucified," The Bridge i (1955),pp. 96-117; Hans-Martin Roter- ,3. Walt, ("Fear Jacob"), mund,"Die Gekreuzigte in Werk Chagalls," Mouseion: Studien aus Kunst und Lieder un Poemen (in Yiddish), Vol. 2 (New York, 1938), pp. 284-86. Geschichte Otto and Wein- fiir H. Firster(Cologne, 1960), pp. 265-75; Allyn 14. Chagall had just finished his major painting, Revolution of 1937, celebrat- stein, of Review16 "IconographyChagall," Kenyon (1954),pp. 41-45. ing the Russian Revolution and its aftermath, in which he had taken part as 2.For comparisons with Russian icons, see Mira Friedman, "Icon Painting and Commissar for Art in Vitebsk. See Mever (note 3), PP. 392, 412-14. Russian Artas Sourcesof SomeWorks Popular byChagall"'Journal ofJewish 15. David G. Roskies, Against the Apocalpse (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), pp. Art For with 5 (1978),P. 96. compositions compartmentalizeddescriptive 32-33; and Jfidrash Rabbah: Lamentations, trans. A. Cohen (London, 1939), scenes arounda main image,see TamaraTalbot-Rice, A ConciseHistory of PP?42-43-? RussianArt (London,1963), p. 73. Thistradition would also havebeen known to Chagallfrom Byzantineand Westernmedieval sources: see KurtWeitz- 16.Alexandre Benois, "Les Exupositions: Chagall, Oeuvres recentes," Cabiers (1940), 33.All translations inthe text are the mann,Manolis Chatzidakis, Krsto Miatev, and SvetozarRadojcic, Icons from d'art15, I-2 p. by author. SouthEastern Europe and Sinai (London,I968), pl. 76; andPaolo d'Ancona, I7.L. Leneman, "Marc Chagall wegen zeine Christus-figuren alsSymbol fun LesPrimitifs italiens du XIe au XllIe siecles(Paris, i935), figs. 12, 14, 3I, 54. Y'idisheMartyrertum," L'nzerWo~rt (inYiddish) (Jan. 22, I977), P? 4? 3. Cabiersd'art 5-IO (1939),P. I52;and Paris, Galerie Mai, Chagall, exh. 18. 808 I4, HughThomas, Goyla: Th~e Th~ird ofitay; (NewYork, I973\,PP- Ir-r4; cat. (i940), no. I. On Chagall'ssystem of dating, see RaymondCogniat, andGeorge Grosz, Hintergrund (Berlin, I928), pl. I0.See also Boardman Chagall(Paris, i965), p. 6; andFranz Meyer, Marc Chagall (New York, I963), Robinson's1916 cartoon inwihich Jesus, the man of peace, isshot as a deserter; pp. io-ii, 599n. 3. andBohdan Nowak's Un~known Soldier of r930in D. J. R. Bruckner, Sevinour Chwast,and Stev?en Heller, A-rt against Itar (NLew York, 1984), pp. 76. 4. Cahiersd'art (note 3); and Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Marc Chagall, soilr,

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