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Lot Essay
Like an insect trapped in amber, On Kawara's Jan. 12, 1978 is a time capsule that links us to one day in the artist's life. The newspaper clipping in the box shows that Kawara was in his adopted home, New York, on that day. Jan. 12, 1978 is one of Kawara's Date paintings, which have appeared in his work since 1965, recording his daily locations by incorporating newspaper segments from wherever he finds himself.
There is an intense objectivity in the almost scientific manner in which he presents us with an artwork that doubles as evidence - evidence of his own existence. Indeed, there is a resonant existential poetry to Kawara's desire to harness one day in time. It is a similar poetry to that which breathes throughout his work, not least in his daily telegrams to his friends telling them simply, 'I am still alive.' This deeply personal statement and awareness of life hints at the presence of his personal thoughts and feelings, yet Jan. 12, 1978 is inscrutable, and reveals nothing of the artist's inner life.
The rigid objectivity of the newspaper cutting and the date are accentuated by the fact that the writing on the box is not stencilled, but painted by hand. In this way, Kawara corroborates the evidence of the clipping by showing his own handiwork, the product of that day's painting. His brushstrokes filled some of the time of that day, and are now presented as traces of the artist's life. Kawara's Date paintings saw the artist meticulously painting these numbers and figures in a time-consuming act that was in itself a form of meditation upon time.
That the subject matter of this painting has been dictated by the framework of dates and of passing time, by the artist's arbitrary decision to paint on that precise day, further eradicates Jan. 12, 1978's subjectivity. There are no outpourings of emotion, nothing remotely expressive or expressionistic. In his own controlled reaction against the personal subject matter cluttering up so much modern painting, Kawara takes a Minimalist path and presents us with a simple and irreducible fact enshrined in oils.
There is an intense objectivity in the almost scientific manner in which he presents us with an artwork that doubles as evidence - evidence of his own existence. Indeed, there is a resonant existential poetry to Kawara's desire to harness one day in time. It is a similar poetry to that which breathes throughout his work, not least in his daily telegrams to his friends telling them simply, 'I am still alive.' This deeply personal statement and awareness of life hints at the presence of his personal thoughts and feelings, yet Jan. 12, 1978 is inscrutable, and reveals nothing of the artist's inner life.
The rigid objectivity of the newspaper cutting and the date are accentuated by the fact that the writing on the box is not stencilled, but painted by hand. In this way, Kawara corroborates the evidence of the clipping by showing his own handiwork, the product of that day's painting. His brushstrokes filled some of the time of that day, and are now presented as traces of the artist's life. Kawara's Date paintings saw the artist meticulously painting these numbers and figures in a time-consuming act that was in itself a form of meditation upon time.
That the subject matter of this painting has been dictated by the framework of dates and of passing time, by the artist's arbitrary decision to paint on that precise day, further eradicates Jan. 12, 1978's subjectivity. There are no outpourings of emotion, nothing remotely expressive or expressionistic. In his own controlled reaction against the personal subject matter cluttering up so much modern painting, Kawara takes a Minimalist path and presents us with a simple and irreducible fact enshrined in oils.