SEPT.13, 2001

2001

Acrylic on canvas

25.5 x 34.3 cm (10 1/16 x 13 1/2 in.)

The date SEPT.13 2001, painted in white on a solid neutral background, is particularly significant: On Kawara created this work in New York, two days after the 9/11 attacks. A press article describing the attack and illustrated with a photo of the World Trade Center in flames is placed in a box that the painting overhangs. Far from any expressiveness, this conceptual work is approached as memory, a window on a well-documented dramatic event.

On Kawara began working on his “Today” series in 1966 and continued until his death in 2014. Each painting is a monochrome canvas bearing a date, that of its creation, and accompanied by a press article about a fact of that day. Generally painted at night, the painting is destroyed if the artist cannot complete it on the same day.

A work with a poetic and existential dimension, SEPT.13 2001 by On Kawara was first shown at the 2016 “Accrochage” ("Hanging") exhibition at the Punta della Dogana.
Exhibitions