On Kawara: The 90S

Can you recall what you were doing on April 3, 1990? What about on July 17, 1996? October 23, 1998? In Date Paintings, time itself has become art--art that carries viewers back in time. These black and white paintings are pure realism, the existence of time put in painting, thus rendering the works--up to a certain point--both viewable and readable. The 11 paintings, made by Conceptual artist On Kawara over the course of a decade, allow viewers to complete their reading with personal associations, historical events or academic interpretations. The book, conceived with Kawara himself, is a decidedly different and intimate take on an artist's monograph. In it, Kawara has invented a simple and striking way to make art by taking his time and using the calendar to make a kind of non-individual art work.