Roman Opałka, 1965 / 1 - ∞ DETAIL - 5572367 - 5583849, 2010

“All my work is a single thing, the description from number one to infinity. A single thing, a single life.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. My death is the logical and emotional proof of the completion of my work.”

The numbers 1 to 5,607,249, painted by Roman Opalka over a period of more than 40 years, appear in a long series of paintings created between 1965 and 2011. It was in 1965, that this work became an inevitable part of his life. In order to explore the passing of time with no way back, Roman Opalka added an essential element to his succession of number: in the initially black background of the painting, he added a small percentage of white colour with every painting. As such, in his last works, Opalka paints with white on white. The painting gradually and irreversibly moved towards an apparent homogeneity that erases all spatial variations.

In each composition, tiny numbers are organized in narrow horizontal rows, without commas or number breaks, and Opałka himself was painting without the help of rulers. At the time of his death in 2011, 1965/1 - ∞ has 233 details and ends with the number 5607249. The painting detail 5572367 - 5583849 is amongst Opalka’s last paintings, identifiable among other elements by the white-on-white aspect. The idea of infinity in his work suggests that after his death his own work continues to exist beyond his life and the canvas of the painting.

Roman Opalka does not paint time, he has been materialising it since 1965. The canvases covered tirelessly with arithmetic sequences in Les Détails are accompanied by a vocal recording of Opalka listing these sequences as well as his self-portrait photographed day after day, with the same framing, the same white shirt and the same expression. The numbers grow vertiginously on his increasingly white paintings, while time does its work on his voice and his parchment-like face.

Opalka was represented at the Venice Biennale in 1993 and 2003 as well as at the Documenta in Kassel in 1977. His work is included in the permanent collections of the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among others.

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Roman Opałka France, 1931-2011

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