On Kawara was a Japanese conceptual artist. Beginning in 1951, he devoted himself as a self-taught artist to the study of art. During this period, he primarily created drawings depicting fragmented nude figures and environments. In 1965, he settled in New York City, where he continued his artistic exploration, particularly delving into themes related to space and time. Notably, it was the concept of time that captivated Kawara from the mid-1960s onwards. This fascination with time can be traced back to January 4, 1966, which marked the beginning of a significant series in his artistic oeuvre Today or Date Paintings, work on which the artist has assiduously continued to engage for nearly five decades. These are red, blue or gray monochrome canvases with a white inscription indicating the date of its creation. Interestingly, Kawara adhered to the language conventions of the location where he produced the painting when noting the date. Consequently, in instances where the Roman alphabet was not the standard, he utilized alternative systems such as Esperanto to record the date. Kawara’s artworks did not adhere to a consistent schedule, as there were days when he didn’t paint at all, while on other days he completed more than one piece. Nevertheless, each work was created meticulously and almost obsessively, following a rigid sequence of steps that remained constant. In fact, if a painting wasn’t completed by midnight of the given day, Kawara would destroy it. Additionally, he produced a cardboard box for each Date Painting, often including a clipping from a local newspaper. Kawara’s choice of dates does not seem to follow any general principle; while some dates may hold personal or historical significance, there is no apparent pattern beyond chronological order. It could be argued that each “Today” in Kawara’s series exists as an individual entity within the broader framework of time passing regularly. This series suggests that calendars are human constructs and that our perception of time is influenced by cultural backgrounds and personal experiences.
Around the 1970s, Kawara expanded his conceptual works to include seemingly mundane and straightforward phrases delivered in the format of telegrams. This period saw the emergence of series such as I went, I got up (1968-1979) and One million years-Past (1970), while in the 1980s, he introduced One million years-Future (1980-1998). One million years encompasses both Past and Future, presented as a collection of typewritten photocopies that mark the passage of time backward in one instance and forward in the other. These series, approached conceptually, underscore the finite nature of human existence while also seeking to alleviate the anxiety stemming from this realization by presenting dates solely as numerical figures devoid of external associations.
In the 29,771 days that Kawara lived, several significant exhibitions were dedicated to him, as detailed on the website of the foundation that preserves his work, the One Million Years Foundation: One thousand days One million years  (1993, New York, Dia Center for the Arts), Whole and parts 1964-1995 (1997-98, Lyon, Rivoli, Barcelona, Tokyo),  Horizontality/Verticality (2001, Cologne, Museum Ludwig). His works were exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum’s first Nippon Exhibition in 1953 and the following year at the Takemiya Gallery and at the Hibiya Gallery. His first New York exhibition was in 1967 at the Dwan Gallery. The first solo exhibition dedicated to him, titled One Million Years, toured in 1971 between Düsseldorf, Paris and Milan. Kawara’s works have been included in three Documenta exhibitions (1972, 1982 and 2002), the Tokyo Biennale (1970), the Kyoto Biennale (1976) and the Venice Biennale (1976). Eventually, in the following years, solo exhibitions were organized by Centre Pompidou, Paris (1977), the Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1980), the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam (1991), the South London Gallery (2004) and the Dallas Museum of Art (2008).