1. On Kawara, Dec.24,2006 (from the Today series, no.37, 2006), 2006, Acrylic on canvas (cardboard box with newspaper) 20,5 x 26,7 cm, Private collection, Zürich, © Estate of On Kawara
Until the end of January, the Kunsthaus in Zürich present an exhibition dedicated to the vast notion of time, and it's depiction from the 14th century to today, with numerous works on paper, canvases but also watches, films and installations. Under the patronage of the curator Catherine Hug, this notion is defined into different vast sections, sometime chronological, stylistically or socially divided.
The definition of time
2. Time. From Dürer to Bonvicini, Installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2023, Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich
Time is defined in Wikipedia as "Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to compare the duration of events or the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change of quantities in material reality or in the conscious experience. Time is often referred to as a fourth dimension, along with three spatial dimensions.".
Thus, this exhibition is taking quite a large and universal subject for an exhibition, but also a Swiss subject, when you think about the heritage Switzerland had and still have today with watch making and punctuality. Thus, the curator of the exhibition, Catherine Hug created dialogue between fine arts objects and watches coming from the museum of watches and watchmaking in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
But other then watches, time is a universal concept for artists, it's the notion of time which is depicted in still life using one or numerous candles, it's a reference to the ephemeral nature of life, meditation, changing seasons, and financial markets that are now synchronized down to the last picosecond.
But, as surprising as it might be, everything started out by clock making and the notion of defining time, day and night, and the changing seasons which are defining the plural notions of time. Plural in a sense that it defined biology, sociology, philosophy, politics and economics, it defined the notion of creating works in one day such as the works of On Kawara.
The artist who created a series of worked bases on the physical traces of every day dates. Written on this format: Day-Month-Years, the artist started making those paintings on January 4, 1966, and continued making them every day until his death in 2014. All of those works were produced according to a strict set of rules. Each was painted during the course of a single day (any work not completed in that time was destroyed), and each was rendered in one of eight possible sizes and three possible colors: red, blue, or grey.
But sometimes, everything stops
3. Alfred Stevens, Le Bain, 1874, Oil on canvas, 73,5 x 92,8 cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay) / Tony Querrec
While the exhibition trace back our time, the concept of the exhibition came at a time where everything slowed down, Covid-19, the pandemic which changes our habits for the decades to come, which destroyed and changes life, who gave us freedom and new ways of communication, life, and work.
All of those notions and way more are encompass in six chapters covering all of the 1,200-square-metre exhibition space with artists such as Cuno Amiet, Giacomo Balla, Roman Opałka, Roni Horn, Markus Lüpertz and numerous European artists and movements.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Kunsthaus Zürich
Date: 22.9.2023 – 14.1.2024
Curators: Catherine Hug
Ticket: Available on the website of the Kunsthaus Zürich OR at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Kunsthaus Zürich
Kunsthaus Zürich
Heimplatz
CH-8001 Zürich
Phone: +41 44 253 84 84
Mail: info@kunsthaus.ch