- Roman Opałka
Roman Opałka (
1931 -) is a famous French painter of Polish origin.In 1965, In his studio in Warsaw, Roman Opalka, a French born painter of Polish origin, began painting a process of counting - from one to infinity. Starting in the top left-hand corner of the canvas and finishing in the bottom right-hand corner, the tiny numbers are painted in horizontal rows. Each new canvas, which the artist calls a 'detail', takes up counting where the last left off. Each 'detail' is the same size (196 x 135 cm), the dimension of his studio door in Warsaw. All details have the same title, "1965 / 1 – ∞"; the idea does not date although the artist has pledged his life to its execution: 'All my work is a single thing, the description from number one to infinity. A single thing, a single life.'
Over the years there have been some changes to the ritual. In Opalka's first details he painted white numbers onto a black background. In 1968 he changed to a grey background 'because its not a symbolic colour, nor an emotional one', and in 1972 he decided he would gradually lighten this grey background by adding 1 per cent more white to the ground with each passing detail. He expects to be painting virtually in white on white by the time he reaches 7 777 777, about a decade away at the current rate: 'My objective is to get up to the white on white and still be alive.'
In 1968 Opalka introduced a tape recorder, speaking each number into the microphone as he paints it, and he also began photographing himself standing before the canvas after each day's work, a ritual bookkeeping of time passing. The process is endless, but measured against its goal - infinity - it is as naught: 'the problem is that we are, and are about not to be'.
In 2007 Opalka participated at the symposium “
Personal Structures Time-Space-Existence” a project initiated by the artistRene Rietmeyer .External links
* [http://www.jointadventures.org/opalka/ Works Information]
* [http://www.the-artists.org/ArtistView.cfm?id=98C46FCE-6F60-4E8D-A4876F65CDA3A7EB]
* [http://www.gallery-merid.com Netart project dedicated to Roman Opalka]
* [http://www.lvhrd.org/index.php/2007/07/27/the-weight-of-the-infinite LVRH Blog archive]
* [http://www.praz-delavallade.com/index.php?site=artists&fromlink=artist_id&a_id=16&artistname=roman_opalka Roman Opalka bio, selected works and exhibitions at Praz-Delavallade Gallery]
* [http://www.documentary-art.net/tag/watch-now.php?&ref=202 Roman Opalka Chateau de Fraisse France]
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