On Kawara
On Kawara (b.1932-2014) grows up in Kiriya and Tokyo, where he experiences as an adolescent how his people try to process the national trauma of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1955-56, as a 23-year-old, he makes a series of 30 death portraits – some based on existing photographs – to capture the horror of this 'atomic time' on paper. The intended publication under the title Death Masks is not realised and the series of drawings – although intended as a moment of remembrance – is forgotten.
After wandering through South America and Europe, On Kawara settles permanently in New York, where, a year later, he makes his first Date Painting: the painted representation of the date and place where he is at that moment, applied to canvas with calligraphic precision. Since then, every day, he records his earthly presence as an ‘existential statement’.
Text: Hans Willemse, 2018