Mark Manders, Room with Reduced Chair and Camouflaged Factory (2003) , via Art Observed

Compiled from over 100 works in the Guggenheim Museum’s personal collection, the current exhibition at the uptown institution, Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim, feels like something of a victory lap for the museum, following up on its excellent On Kawara exhibition with an extended show of contemporary works that spans the last thirty years, and which uncovers a broad curatorial focus at the core of its collection.  Emphasizing a nuanced interest in the narrative as a core unifying element for disparately realized works, objects and assemblages, Storylines pulls from diverse practices to portray the often challenging representative missions that contemporary artists set for themselves. (more…)

On Kawara, 5 Feb. 2006

Artist On Kawara, whose ongoing artistic project involved the painting of each day of his life, has passed away at the age of 81.

Born in 1933 in Japan, Kawara worked in Tokyo until 1965, when he moved to New York City.  Shortly after arriving, Kawara began his famous “date paintings” series, painting the calendar date for each day of his life, meticulously recording the passage of his life on canvas through a simple, tracing of dates and time.  His absurdist, heavily conceptual bent opened a new engagement with the processes of time and context in art, making him an unlikely air to the work of early Dadaists like Duchamp and Magritte. (more…)

Grand Palais, courtesy FIAC

FIAC, or the 39th International Contemporary Art Fair, will open tomorrow (Thursday) in Paris, with a VIP preview today, with 184 galleries exhibiting at the Grand Palais, and this year utilizing the restored Salon d’Honneur as well, which lies at the center of the structure. As in past years, galleries will exhibit sculpture at the Tuilieries Garden nearby. Approximately 65,000 visitors are expected to attend.

Tuilieries Garden courtesy FIAC (more…)

All installation views courtesy of David Zwirner.

David Zwirner is currently presenting Date Painting(s) in New York and 136 Other Cities, a collection of work by On Kawara that spans the 46-year series of paintings. Blending the personal with the historical, the artist’s work uses variations of sans serif fonts and hand-mixed colors to record the date on which he painted the canvas. Kawara consistently exudes a fascination with chronological time, exploring the human perception of its passing, and the nature of our relationship to it. By notching the passage of time and cataloging the procession of his physical life and travels, Kawara creates a body of work that not only testifies to the grand scope of the human life, but also creates a complex interaction with the idea of history—both of the self and of mankind—and the history of the future.

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All Installation views via Andrea Rosen Gallery

Amnesia at the Andrea Rosen Gallery brings together three ambitious projects: Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ “Untitled” (It’s Just a Matter of Time) from his Billboard series, 12 On Kawara canvases from the artist’s Today project, with each work representing a month of one year, and a video program over nine monitors curated by Rebecca Cleman and Josh Kline of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI). The show attempts to bridge the gap between seemingly incongruous works through the very theme of discontinuity. Amnesia references the gaps in memory that extend to the fibers of culture, and, ultimately, the historical archive.

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Barbara Kruger, Past / Present / Future (2010). Via The Citrus Report

Closed since 2003, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has partially reopened with an innovative program of exhibitions, lectures, performances and workshops titled The Temporary Stedelijk. Taking Place is a group show highlighting the museum’s permanent collection, showcasing exciting recent acquisitions and also featuring new site specific work, such as Barbara Kruger‘s Past / Present / Future (2010). Ann Goldstein, recently named director of the Stedelijk and former senior curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, organized the program after complications prevented the Stedelijk from re-opening as planned in Fall 2010.

Roman Ondak, Measuring the Universe (2007), Via Uapmarker

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Polar Bears of the Liro, Marc Quinn (2008) Sold within estimate range for £97,250

The Contemporary Sales at Phillips de Pury & Company on Saturday October 17 offered a truly diverse selection of works from premier Contemporary artists. The 43-lot evening sale included four unique works by Martin Kippenberger from the Bleich-Rossi Collection alongside exciting works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lucio Fontana, Steven Parrino, On Kawara, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and Jonathan Meese. The Day sale kicked off with a charity auction of twenty-one works by internationally renowned artists, including Anselm Kiefer, Rudolf Stingel and Francesco Vezzoli, to benefit the EMERGENCY charitable organization. The total sales from the Day sale amounted to £2,643,713 and the Evening sale brought in £4,104,950 against a low estimate of £5 million.

Concetto Spaziale, Lucio Fontana (1958-60)

Related Links:
Phillips de Pury & Company Website
Full List of Auction Results [Phillips de Pury]
Basquiat sells as buyers get picky at Choosy at $6.7 million auction [Bloomberg]
Signs of Life in London’s Art Market [WSJ]
A Whole New Spectrum of Buyers [Art Market Monitor]

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On Kawara One Million Years volunteers reading passage at David Zwirner Gallery via Interview Magazine

On display now at David Zwirner is a new presentation of Japanese conceptual artist On Kawara’s work in progress, One Million Years (Past and Future). The work serves to document the passage of time and lists all of the annual individual dates from 998,031 BC to 1,001,995 AD in a 20-volume collection of hard-bound books. The work is divided into two parts. The first half, which Kawara begin in 1979, One Million Years (Past) contains the years 998,031 BC to 1969 AD. The half is subtitled “For all those who have lived and died.” The later half of the project entitled One Million Years (Future) contains the years 1969 AD to 1,001,995 AD and was completed in 1998. The work is subtitled “For the last one.” The piece is presented both in text and as audio. In addition to the text presentation of the work Kawara embarked on an audio recording of the work in 1993. The audio recording continues within the David Zwirner Gallery inside a recording booth that houses readers of the work and a sound technician. Volunteers recite the consecutive dates during hour-long sessions.  Males read the odd numbers and females read the even numbers.  The intent is to record, edit, and package CDs of the work on site.  Previous recordings sold for $1,000 per CD box set.

On Kawara One Million Years Press Release [David Zwirner]
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On Kawara One Million Years [Chelsea Art Galleries]
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On Kawara: David Zwirner Gallery, New York [International Contemporary Art Magazine via BNET]
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Reeling In the Years [NewYorkMag]
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My Brief Career in Conceptual Art [W Magazine]
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On to a Million [Interview Magazine]

 
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