1965: STUDIO
1965 in the life of On Kawara is a tough year to write about. Why? There is a book titled On Kawara: 1964 and another called On Kawara: 1966. There is no such volume for 1965. Pity the poor biographer, forced to rely on his own research, imagination and powers of deduction!
But wait. In the 1964 volume, Roland Waspe writes: 'In the autumn of 1964 On Kawara went back to New York; it had turned out impossible to find a studio in Paris. His friend and later wife, Hiroko, had gone on ahead that spring.'
It may be then that Hiroko found the studio on East 13th Street that On was to work in throughout 1965 and 1966. The living accommodation was situated on Chambers Street, quite a distance south of East 13th Street, so it wasn't an ideal set-up. Back to Roland Waspe:
'In his New York studio On Kawara then tried to transpose the ideas he had developed in his countless drawings. The series of tables with different, eg concave and convex, surfaces thus served as prototypes (nos. 143-149). This collective profusion of all the potentially realisable possibilities were what, in the end, convinced On Kawara that he needed to restrict himself radically: to do something and to do it over a long period of time.'
At this point in the text there is an end-note referred to, note 7, which reads: 'On Kawara relates that he gained the assurance to take this step more intuitively, from a very strong feeling and that already then, he had calculated on twenty years for the long-term project.'
So we need to bear that in mind as we seek a fuller picture, even a fairly complete understanding, of what On Kawara was doing in 1965.
But there is another source of information that I've been able to consult. Heinz Nigg, who stayed with On and Hiroko for a fortnight in 1974, kept a diary providing valuable insights into On Kawara's then life and history. What the diary doesn't say, but what Heinz told me when I visited him in Zurich earlier this year (2024), is that On Kawara mentioned that in 1965, the year before he began Date Painting, On played chess every night and slept all day while Hiroko went out to work. Well, I'm sure Hiroko had as much faith in On's sense of purpose as On Kawara himself did, and that both of them had the courage and foresight to be extremely patient with the artist's still-forming vision.
I expect it was On who took the following photograph in his studio in 1965: 
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
This image is from the 2014 catalogue, On Kawara: Silence, and on the facing page, Anne Wheeler sets the scene. 'In 1965, following the abandonment of sculptural experiments in his new studio on East 13th Street in New York, Kawara returned swiftly and definitively to painting. Confronting the expansive studio space, the artist began working on a group of monochrome canvases in various sizes that deepened his exploration of language. Some works featured messages coded in systems of Kawara's own invention - geometric shapes, circles and rectangles on an implied grid that, according to the artist, no one was ever able to decipher. Others bore simple English words such as ART, MOONSTONE, CIPHER, and UNTITLED, or epigrammatic phrases like GO HOME AND CRY ON YOUR PILLOW.'
I will come back to the painted codes. First, the painted words. Although, On Kawara destroyed these, there is evidence that he hadn't destroyed them by the middle of 1966. The evidence is found along the left edge of this photo that was taken in the East 13th Street studio towards the end of 1966.
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
I mean, of course, the 'RT' of 'ART'. What's great about this image is that it speaks of the paintings that were made in 1965, but later deemed not good enough; while the idea of how On Kawara would work in 1966 - just a formless idea in 1965 - hovers in the air, as it were.
I dare say On Kawara tried filling the space with his single word paintings of various sizes. I dare say he was tempted to make them big in order to fill the space. Picture ART, UNTITLED, CIPHER and MOONSTONE (not the novel by Wilkie Collins, rather the bluish gemstone that looks different under various phases of the moon) covering the walls of the main space.
And picture On Kawara going home to cry on his pillow. The vision still wasn't there. Even if he began with MOONSTONE and added MOONLIGHT then MOONSHADOW and MOONWALK, it still didn't add up to anything special. Space and time. How could he bring the two together within this set of walls? And 1965 was ticking away. He must have been well aware that playing chess most nights and sleeping most days was a way of avoiding the question.
Another way of avoiding the question was by making codes. Here are a few more painted codes, only one of the following being already pictured in the first image on this page. This image is taken from the 1980 publication On Kawara: continuity/discontinuity 1963-1979, a book which On Kawara clearly contributed most of the material to, so it can be relied on.
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
I'm glad those painted codes don't exist in clear form. If they did, I expect I'd be spending months trying to decode them.
But part of me wishes that On Kawara had spared his text paintings.
Let's return to this 1966 photograph of On Kawara's, and indulge in a bit of wishful thinking. Really, it's just reclaiming 1965 from oblivion: 
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
In this room, we can visualise On Kawara painting the relatively small canvases that are the codes in the last but one picture. But we must also see him working on the three drawings of codes that he did not destroy.
All this preceded the making of the Date Paintings. Yes, we must keep the Date Paintings in mind, but not make the mistake of thinking that they are adorning the walls of On's studio. Not yet! - not in 1965.
Here is the first code. Code or Coloured Cryptogram is reproduced in On KAWARA: Silence. It covers six pages at 13-lines per page and the first page looks like this: 
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
What does it mean? Well, we don't yet know as the code hasn't been cracked. However, it is very likely to mean something specific as the other two similar codes written in 1965, consisting of aligned colour ticks, have been cracked in 2024 (by a team comprising of me, Anders Delbom and Tommy Wrede). See the 'BREAKING ON' section of this site.
The second code made in 1965 is a work superficially similar to the first. Again it consists of six pages, thirteen lines to the page. Here is one of the pages.
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
It's much neater than the first code, which helped the code-breaker, in this case principally Tommy Wrede. Tommy tells us that the 25 different colour combinations of tick correspond to 25 of the letters of the alphabet, with W being created by using the same colour combination used for V. Very clever.
Cleverer still, is the way that, without signalling the fact, a second alphabet is used. So the code-breaker had to bear that in mind. And in doing so, the following text was revealed:
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation. English translation by Tommy Wrede.
The entire deciphered text reads as follows. Note that the green and red are arbitrary colours, just used to separate one speaker (one alphabet) from the other:
Darling Jill, dearest Jack,
I tried yesterday to tell you how much I love you. I’m so glad you like having letters, and I don’t think I said a fraction of what I really meant. Because I feel the same way as you about having one of yours with me all the time. I thought, if ever I feel depressed about anything or miss you too badly. I might make up for that in this letter - and now I’m finding it even more difficult to put it into words! I shall just read yours again.
What I’m really trying to say, Jill dearest, is that I love you far more than I shall ever be able to express, and I just hope you can feel something of what’s going on in my heart. I shall never forget last Saturday. Life has been so utterly different since I met you - so much better, so much more wonderful - that I feel I’m only now really beginning to live. In the future I think I shall always have a special “Saturday feeling”. It may sound absurd, but it’s a fact that knowing you has made me notice lots of little lovely things in everyday life that I just didn’t see before - colors in the market, sunlight on high street after rain, and things like that. We’ll put our troubles aside on Saturdays, Jack, and plan little treats for one another. It’s three months now since I first knew I loved you. We’ll make it “our day” somehow, even if we’re terribly hard up or the pipes have burst or your job’s worrying you. After yesterday I feel happier than I have ever felt in my life.
I just can’t put into words what I feel when I think about you. I’m glad you told me about noticing things more since you fell in love with me. I wonder whether you can be feeling the same about me, because I’ve found the same thing. I’m so unworthy of you that I can hardly believe you do, but after what you said yesterday I can’t help feeling you are giving me much more of your love and your thoughts than I deserve. And music seems different too - I’m beginning to understand what Mary means when she talks about it - only being a musician, she can get it without being in love, as artists see beauty. So I suppose finding one another has helped you and me get a glimpse of something geniuses are born with. It makes me feel very humble and thankful, and I really will do my best to deserve it, Jill darling, in all the years to come. I hope it stays like that, Jack, always. I mean that we go on making more out of life because we’ve got one another. Thursday seems such a long way off that I just had to write to you. Come up early on Thursday. For one thing, I felt I had to talk to you tonight before I could go to sleep. For another, I hope one day you’ll have time to send me a note. I’d love to have one to keep all the time in my wallet; it’s the next best thing to having you always with me.
All my love, all my love, darling,
Jack. Jill.
The work is called Love Letters. Apparently, the text was taken from a manual. So in that sense it is a 'found' text and it's not possible to read anything into it regarding the relationship between On and Hiroko. Though I think it is safe to assume their relationship was loving and loyal, and may well have come as a revelation to them both. Though in saying that, I'm doing what I said I shouldn't do!
Both the codes could have been displayed as a grid of six pages on the wall. So one can imagine one or both those grids, instead of the line of Dates in the smaller of the two rooms that comprised On's 13th Street studio. In the same kind of way that On imagined, in his sketchbook of 1964, displaying all the pages of a dismantled copy of The Old Man and the Sea.
Anne Wheeler tells us that the first and untracked Code was known as Coloured Cryptogram or Love Letter. Hmmm… I'm not sure about the Love Letter title in particular. This is despite what Hiroko says in her 1969 letter to Kasper Konig: 'The Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo has one code in color whose title was 'Love Letters' or something similar to that.' Indeed, that sentence may be the source of where Ann Wheeler got the idea that the piece was called Love Letter(s), mistaking it for Love Letters. But surely such an assumption wouldn't have been made.
What is significant is that the piece was given to the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. That makes me think that the code is in Japanese, more relevant to a Tokyo audience than a New York one. On Kawara had already gifted that gallery the Bathroom series of drawings from 1953, together with the Warehouse series from 1954. Let me remind us of how that Tokyo warehouse looked. It went through three phases:
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
The On Kawara of 1965 has come a long way from these dire visions. The warehouse is now a studio in New York and something positive is happening there. Moreover, something momentous will be happening there shortly.
I should say at this point that On Kawara did allow two of his text paintings from 1965 to survive. Below is one of them: 
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
The above photo, I suspect, was taken in the same inner office of the 13th Street studio, where the following photo was taken, with window repaired, in 1966:
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
In a sense, Location is a code too, with its co-ordinates for longitude and latitude. But it's a code that everyone knows and can access by referring to an atlas.
It is not the latitude and longitude of On's studio in Manhattan though. Ann Wheeler in On Kawara: Silence tells us: 'The painting's inscription designates a code that can only be ascertained by consulting an atlas - a remote point in the Sahara Desert, far from any human settlement; a non-site, even, that lacks plausible personal or historical significance. Kawara planned but did not complete a series of related co-ordinate "landscapes" for other remote places.'
So at one point, On Kawara may have been considering filling his studio with these coded landscapes of obscure places. The whole world in his studio? A latitude/longitude combo from the Himalayas, Greenland, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and as many more as needed to fill the walls. A good idea? Possibly, but there was a better idea that would come along in the autumn of 1965 which he would execute to devastating effect in 1966.
And the other text painting that On Kawara did not destroy? It's the three-panel work called Title, that reads 'ONE THING…1965…VIET-NAM'. Originally it said 'RED CHINA…1965…VIET-NAM,' but that was deemed overtly political. The painting became more interesting when 'ONE THING' replaced 'RED CHINA' because, for me anyway, it puts the emphasis on '1965' instead of 'VIET-NAM'.
Below is an image of Title when it was installed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 1995. From this you can see that the work is pretty big. But it still wouldn't have filled On Kawara's 13th Street studio the way he wanted to fill it.
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Back to On Kawara sitting in the smaller of his two spaces at 13th Street. The 'office' attached to his 'warehouse'. Let's change the hang again. And let's put a hold on the appearance of those Date Paintings. On Kawara is not quite finished with 1965.
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Maybe it helps (helps who?) if I put it this way. 
I think it's a shame that the displaced text painting was destroyed, it contains the same humour as the 1969 telegram, precursor of the 'I AM STILL ALIVE' series, that said 'I AM GOING TO BED. FORGET IT.' (Thanks to Michael Wynne for seeing the parallel.)
Anyway, before simple Date Painting there was complex Code Crayoning!
On's third code of 1965 was Traveler's Song. Again it involved paired strokes of colour. Though this time the piece is only two pages long. Here is the first page, covering verse one and the first line of verse two:
Reproduced thanks to the understanding of the One Million Years Foundation.
Again Anders Delbom and Tommy Wrede swung into action earlier this year, and soon we had the piece deciphered, I believe for the first time, fifty-nine years on!
Again two alphabets were employed by Kawara. English is used some of the time and Romanised Japanese for the rest. Once the Japanese words are translated into English as best they can be by a Westerner using Google Translate - and a smile and a wink from Hideo Mori - this is the result:
Verse one
Oh Kiso no pilgrims, boatmen,
raftsmen coming down the Kiso,
how is it Kiso no happy raftsmen
on Mount Ontake, nanjarahoi, up the Kiso?
It is summer but cold there in summer,
Chilly oh-good, oh-good, oh-good!
Verse two
Oh don't copy pilgrims, boatmen,
raftsmen coming down the Kiso,
I wish I could take your sadness away
Do you give winter clothes, nanjarahoi?
Traveling with Japanese socks to warm your
toes-good, toes-good, toes-good.
Although the Japanese words may not be properly or comprehensively translated - it's an old song after all - it's obviously the correct solution. The fascinating thing is that the place names locate the song in On Kawara's homeland. The Kiso River reaches the sea close to where he was born in Kariya. And one can imagine that On Kawara went up the river to Mount Ontake as a child. Did his parents make sure he wore his tabi socks for the journey? I can believe it.
On Kawara, in his huge New York studio, has got to a state of mind where he accepts that he is international yet Japanese, and that Japan has traditions that are healthy. America dropping bombs on two cities of his homeland destroyed much of his birthright, but he has got through the devastating impact on his psyche, has he not?
The brilliant On Kawara is now as grounded as anyone could possibly be. And he knows what he is going to do. He is going to spend as many days as he can in 1966, in his studio, simply painting the date. Painting the date on the day itself, and nothing more. Moreover, the date that will be at the back of his mind while painting the present day will not be AUG. 6, 1945 or AUG. 9, 1945 but DEC. 24, 1932. Christmas Eve. The day of his birth.
How high would On Kawara have been feeling towards the end of 1965, knowing what was going to happen as soon as the year turned?
That's the thing about On Kawara. On the one hand, he's sitting in his studio doing something incredibly mundane. On the other, he is enjoying the most intense spiritual engagement with life. It puts everyone in a good mood, does it not, the vision of On Kawara in his 13th Street studio? I feel inspired to give the artist some advice: "GO HOME AND FLOAT ON YOUR RIVER."
Zhao Byng. From Chinese Illustrations of the Path to Immortality.
On Kawara floating once again on the River Kiso to shining Mount Ontake. Supported all the way by the idea of Date Painting even though he has not yet painted a single canvas.
Toes-good, head-good, hands-good.
And now his adult life starts. And now his true work begins.
Egg.
Notes
1. Of course I don't know for sure what order On Kawara came up with the three codes in 1965. The order chosen helps to dramatise On's first year in the East 13th Street studio.
2. I believe that a researcher in Japan is currently working on On Kawara's codes. So a solution to the 'first' code may not be far off.
3. Despite what I say at the beginning of this essay, it was 1964 that was the tough year to write up (not 1965). An endless variety of experimental drawings doth not an exciting drama make.
SEPT. 29, 2024
