On Kawara: Date paintings in 89 Cities

This exhibition included monochrome canvases that “marked time” in different cities throughout the world; each denoted its date of completion in the language of the country in which it was made and was accompanied by a cardboard box with a clipping from a local newspaper published the same day. These “date paintings” double as an archive of life events registered with the utmost objectivity.

Organized by the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, this exhibition was presented in four of the cities in which the artist created the works on view, establishing another link between the mental and physical aspects of time, space, and transposition explored in On Kawara’s art. A catalogue was published by the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen to correspond with the exhibition.