This artwork was considered the most personal and intimate of his works. It is part of a continuous piece produced by On Kawara between 1968 and 1979 in which each day the artist sent two different friends or colleagues a picture postcard, each stamped with the exact time he arose that day and the addresses of both sender and recipient. The length of each postcard ranged from a single card to hundreds sent consecutively over a period of months. Just in 1973 he sent postcards from twenty-eight cities. These Postcards were not parked with the time that he woke up, but of the time he actually got up out of bed to start the day.
Not only did he record the time he got up on these postcards, but he also put pictures on the postcards he sent out. These were pictures of the beautiful city of Manhattan. The pictures created an aerial tour of the city circling around the United Nations (and inside the General Assembly), down the East River along the waterfront to New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty, and finally roaming around Federal Plaza at street level before coming to rest at City Hall. ("On Kawara: I GOT UP; On Kawara (2001.228a-pp) Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: metmuseum.org. Web. 24 Nov. 2009..)
I think On Kawara develops a connection between art and life in this piece. When he records the time he gets up and sends it to friends he turns it into his own kind of art but it is also deals with his life. I find this piece to be similar to the Today Series as well as all of his other works he does because they all deal with some sort of documentation. This artwork reminds me of a vacation. It is as if someone is far away on a vacation and is keeping in touch with family or friends via postcards, making them pretty with pictures but also the time he got up may tell a story in itself. If he got up early maybe he had a lot of things to do that day or if he got up late he may have had a long night or something.
Not only did he record the time he got up on these postcards, but he also put pictures on the postcards he sent out. These were pictures of the beautiful city of Manhattan. The pictures created an aerial tour of the city circling around the United Nations (and inside the General Assembly), down the East River along the waterfront to New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty, and finally roaming around Federal Plaza at street level before coming to rest at City Hall. ("On Kawara: I GOT UP; On Kawara (2001.228a-pp) Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: metmuseum.org. Web. 24 Nov. 2009.
I think On Kawara develops a connection between art and life in this piece. When he records the time he gets up and sends it to friends he turns it into his own kind of art but it is also deals with his life. I find this piece to be similar to the Today Series as well as all of his other works he does because they all deal with some sort of documentation. This artwork reminds me of a vacation. It is as if someone is far away on a vacation and is keeping in touch with family or friends via postcards, making them pretty with pictures but also the time he got up may tell a story in itself. If he got up early maybe he had a lot of things to do that day or if he got up late he may have had a long night or something.
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