Would On Kawara Have Used Instagram?

On Kawara’s imagined Instagram post ;-)

There are these self-imposed obligations: to do something regularly, to post, to write. Some people find this difficult—they drift through the day, carried along by their thoughts. I, on the other hand, like to be busy. Growing up in a socialist childhood, the work ethic was practically in my mother’s milk. Over time, you forget what life was like without these commitments—it fades away like another life, not better, just no longer an option because it has passed.

On Kawara made transience visible in his unmistakable way. His Today series comprises more than 2,000 paintings: beginning on January 4, 1966, he painted the date of the day in white letters on a monochrome ground, usually in dark tones—blue, gray, red, black. Always in the language and date format of the country he was in at the time. If he couldn’t finish a painting on the same day, he destroyed it. Everything was strictly ritualized, almost like a diary reduced to the bare date.

On Kawara was a conceptual artist. And conceptual art today might just as well mean keeping a blog or posting on Instagram. A story also disappears after 24 hours—making room for the next one, as long as there is an idea you want to share. Until, at some point, it all comes to an end, in one way or another.

Alongside his date paintings, Kawara also sent postcards with terse messages: “I got up at …” or “I am still alive.” Pure signs of life, brief notes of presence, never giving too much away. Condensed, reduced, and clear—almost like a radical pioneer of social media.

In the end, the question remains: to post or not to post. And whatever you do, don’t let the algorithm dictate your art.