Japanese-born, New York-based On Kawara is one of the world's best-known yet most mysterious conceptual artists, an international figure since the 1960s who is still of great interest to a new generation of contemporary art followers. He is a legendary, enigmatic figure; part of his art is to eliminate all traces of himself, save for his art. Thus he is never photographed or interviewed, and he never attends the openings of his exhibitions. Kawara's existence is documented solely through his daily art-making practice. These include thousands of his well-known "Date Paintings" (ongoing since 1965), meticulously painted works which consist simply of the date on which the work is made, boxed with a copy of that day's newspaper; or postcards and telegrams sent to his friends, bearing such messages as "I am still alive", begun in 1969. His many artist's books (among them, One-Million Years [Past, 1970-71, and Future, 1980], ten-volume books which enumerate one by one the past and future one million years, or "I met", a list of all the people he has ever met) attest to the quiet, almost Zen-like dedication of this artist obsessed by repetition and the passage of time. Despite its inherent monotony, Kawara's work offers a surprising variety in its formal presentation: from painting, to installation, to books, to telegrams and postcards. In recent years "Frieze", the up-to-the-minute London magazine dedicated to the very newest international art, took exception to its new-art-only policy and featured this veteran artist on its cover, attesting to Kawara's evergreen interest in the art world, from students to blue-chip collectors. Included in every major conceptual art survey, the Venice Biennale, the Carnegie International and numerous Documentas, Kawara has also presented major solo museum exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (1977), the Moderna Museet, Stockholm (and tour, 1980), the DIA Center for the Arts, New York (1993), and Le Nouveau Musee/Institut d'Art Contemporain, Villeurbaine (1995).
