ART REVIEWS : The Conceptual Life of On Kawara

Conceptual art has been upending the art world apple cart since the ‘60s. It was an art of revolution against Formalism and commercialization that rejected aesthetic tradition and demanded that ideas take precedence over objects. That essential change altered the rules; suddenly art became fluid and idiosyncratic, with the individual artist--rather than critics--laying out the structures within which the art operated. Audience became a vital component of the art, often entirely responsible for creating its meaning by the power of their own experience.

Just how that participation works within the tightly sealed constructs of conceptual art can be seen clearly in the works of On Kawara, a New York- and Japan-based artist currently showing at Stuart Regen Gallery. In this show, his black-and-white paintings from last year’s calendar only take on resonance when the viewer fleshes them out with personal data. “Apr. 24, 1990” reads one carefully lettered painting. That was two days past the Earth Day celebration marking global eco-consciousness. Against the ongoing, steady ticking of Kawara’s systematic counting, the date now rings as a hollow knell of enlightenment and questions the effect or necessity of making a fuss over change.

That’s a suggestion reinforced by considering the remarkable consistency and dedication to concept of Kawara’s art. These paintings, except for their changing dates, are identical to the ones the artist was making and lining his studio with back in 1966. He makes one painting every day, beginning with the stretcher bars and letting the date identify, or signify, the making of the work. Empty of content except for what is represented by the date and the painting’s physical presence they maintain a steadfast, marching cadence through the days of the artist’s life. Yet almost 30 years have given the numbering and building an epic quality of conceptually pure production.

Kawara’s pieces are completely self-referential and in the strictness of their idea and execution they form a neat little conundrum for an art world set up to identify and decipher the evolution of artistic production. The works echo Buddhism’s belief in “non-action” and that--in the practical way Kawara’s mind operates--runs directly contrary to the traditional structures of the Western art world. In the ‘70s he mailed “I GOT UP” postcards that documented the place and the precise hour and second at which he arose but gave no further information. His artist’s resume enigmatically lists only the “21,272 days” of the artist’s life. There is an almost spiritual detachment from the rules of the professional art market. It is simply the fact of his existence that must be considered as giving him value as an artist, not the art objects he produces.

That air of indifference to an object’s value colors all the things the artist produces to gently mark, if not remark upon, his life. They are stubborn in their enigma, using but refusing to co-opt whatever information the viewer chooses to bring to them. Carried to its logical extreme (and Kawara has proven to be an artist with a unique willingness to follow the discipline of his logic), this art will continue unchanged in form until the artist’s death. That tenacity in a simple, but demanding gesture firmly rooted in the work’s concept and inherent idealism makes Kawara’s brand of Conceptual art especially important. It’s a reminder amid the Post-modern penchant for appropriated history and deconstructed culture that art can also function as a model for commitment.

* Stuart Regen Gallery, 619 N. Almont Drive. To April 15.

On the Surface: The lush black surfaces of German artist Lienhard von Monkiewitsch’s paintings and three-dimensional pieces are enthralling for their formal presence and sensuous absorption of light. Each has a surface of dense, tactile black that begs to be stroked but their tough geometry makes touch out of the question. This is rigorously constructed work, devoted to esoteric orders like Fibonacci’s counting system, which gave birth to the Golden Triangle.

Yet it is the work’s delight in surface that gives the stiff formulas their allure. The work always reads as powdery and soft even when it sits on rock-hard cement. Historically, Von Monkiewitsch aligns with abstract painters like Malevich and Ryman in his enchantment with the feelings stimulated by the reduced abstract form and sensual appreciation of surface. Similarly the system or mathematical progression that determines the shape or dimensions of the forms recalls Mondrian, Ad Reinhardt or Donald Judd. The black rectangular or square form undergoes considerable manipulation according to the system being employed and, remarkably, the dark dusty physicality of the work keeps the progression from winding up a dull exercise.

Strange to say amid all this serious geometry and sexy surface play there is also something gently humorous. Without batting an eyelid he uses black velvet, a material that reeks of kitsch, to create the soft frontal surface of his wall sculptures. The effect is so refined its unsuitability just drops away.

In the same vein, the smudged softness of the form’s edges in the dry pigment drawings or the relative crudeness of the sculpture’s sides give the pieces a kind of offhand, casual attitude. It’s a relief--kind of like hearing your philosophy professor crack a joke at the expense of Socrates. And it makes all the mathematical order seem more approachable.

* Angles Gallery, 2220 and 2230 Main St., Santa Monica. To April 20.