On Kawara's Early Figurative Paintings Reveal Pre-Conceptual Strangeness at David Zwirner Paris

David Zwirner's Paris gallery presents 'Early Works,' an exhibition of four figurative paintings by On Kawara from 1955–56 that starkly contrast with his later conceptual practice. These rarely shown works, created when Kawara was in his twenties in Tokyo, feature irregularly shaped canvases with thick-lined, cartoonish styles depicting psychological trauma and postwar Japan's zeitgeist. Paintings like 'Flood' (1955), inspired by the Kyushu flood of June 1953, and 'Golden Home' (1956) use dense patterning and perspectival disorientation to convey invasion and malaise. 'Untitled' (1956) shows bloodred worms attacking empty plates, while 'Absentees' (1956) depicts rioting figures in a jail cell. Kawara moved from Tokyo to Mexico and later New York in the late 1950s, leaving behind this expressive period. He would later produce nearly 3,000 'date paintings' beginning in the mid-1960s, with a concurrent exhibition of those works at David Zwirner's London gallery co-organized by his One Million Years Foundation. Kawara's 1956 statement reveals his desire to 'tear things apart' rather than share nostalgia for the past. The exhibition runs from 23 November to 25 January, featured in ArtReview's March 2025 issue.