Roman Opałka (
Polish: ; 27 August 1931 – 6 August 2011) was a
French-born
Polish painter, whose works are mostly associated with
conceptual art.
Opałka was born on 27 August 1939 in
Abbeville-Saint-Lucien
Abbeville-Saint-Lucien () is a commune in the Oise department in northern France.
Population
Historical Importance
On 11 and 12 September, during the Battle of Bzura, the British and the French made a decision not to help Poland. The ships ...
, France, to Polish parents. The family returned to Poland in 1946 and Opałka studied
lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...
at a graphics school before enrolling in the School of Art and Design in
Łódź
Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...
. He later earned a degree from the
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw () is a public university of visual arts and applied arts located in the Polish capital. The academy traces its history back to the Department of Arts founded at the Warsaw University in the Duchy of Warsaw in 18 ...
. He moved back to France in 1977.
Opałka lived in
Teille, near
Le Mans
Le Mans (; ) is a Communes of France, city in Northwestern France on the Sarthe (river), Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the Provinces of France, province of Maine (province), Maine, it is now the capital of ...
, and
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
.
He died at age 79 after falling ill while on holiday in
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. He was admitted to a hospital near
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
and died there a few days later, on 6 August 2011.
Work
In 1965, in his studio in
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
, Opałka began painting
numbers
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
from one to
infinity
Infinity is something which is boundless, endless, or larger than any natural number. It is denoted by \infty, called the infinity symbol.
From the time of the Ancient Greek mathematics, ancient Greeks, the Infinity (philosophy), philosophic ...
. Starting in the top left-hand corner of the
canvas
Canvas is an extremely durable Plain weave, plain-woven Cloth, fabric used for making sails, tents, Tent#Marquees and larger tents, marquees, backpacks, Shelter (building), shelters, as a Support (art), support for oil painting and for other ite ...
and finishing in the bottom right-hand corner, the tiny numbers were painted in horizontal rows. Each new canvas, which the artist called a "detail", took up counting where the last left off. Each "detail" has the same size the dimension of his studio door in Warsaw. All details have the same title, the project had no definable end, and the artist pledged his life to its ongoing execution: "All my work is a single thing, the description from number one to infinity. A single thing, a single life", "the problem is that we are, and are about not to be". He had contemplated and tried many different ways to visualize time before settling on this life's work.
Over the years there were changes to the process. In Opałka's first details he painted white numbers onto a black background. In 1968 he changed to a grey background "because it's not a
symbolic colour, nor an emotional one", and in 1972 he decided that he would gradually lighten this grey background by adding 1% more white to the ground with each passing detail. He expected to be painting virtually in white on white by the time he reached (he did not use commas or number breaks in the works): "My objective is to get up to the white on white and still be alive." As of July 2004, he had reached 5.5 million.
Adopting this rigorously serialized approach, Opałka aligned himself with other artists of the time who explored making
art
Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...
through systems and
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
, like
Daniel Buren,
On Kawara
was a Japanese conceptual artist who lived in SoHo, New York City, from 1965 until his death. He took part in many solo and group Art exhibition, exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1976.
Early life
Kawara was born in Kariya, Japan on ...
, and
Hanne Darboven
Hanne Darboven (29 April 1941 – 9 March 2009) was a German conceptual artist, best known for her large-scale minimalist installations consisting of handwritten tables of numbers.
Early life and career
Darboven was born in 1941 in Munich. She ...
.
He was represented in Paris and New York by
Yvon Lambert and in Venice by Galleria Michela Rizzo.
In 1968 Opałka introduced to the process a
tape recorder
An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...
, speaking each number into the
microphone
A microphone, colloquially called a mic (), or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publi ...
as he painted it, and also began taking passport-style photographs of himself standing before the canvas after each day's work.
In 2007 Opałka participated at the symposium "
Personal Structures Time–Space–Existence" a project initiated by the artist Rene Rietmeyer.
The final number he painted was .
Exhibitions
Opałka participated in many of the art world’s most important international exhibitions, including
Documenta
Documenta (often stylized documenta) is an Art exhibition, exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany.
Documenta was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgarte ...
in Kassel, Germany, in 1977; the
São Paulo Bienal in 1987; and the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
, in 1995, 2003, 2011 and 2013.
He was represented in Paris and New York by Yvon Lambert,
in Venice by Galleria Michela Rizzo and, for many years, at John Weber in New York.
In 2003, exhibited his work through 's exhibition (the curator was Alain Julien-Laferrière).
In 2017, Opałka has made part of the exhibition "Il mio corpo nel tempo / Lüthi Ontani Opalka", Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Verona 2017. Catalogue Manfredi Edizioni.
Collections
Opałka's works can be found in the permanent collections of the
Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
in Paris and New York’s
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
among others.
Recognition
Opałka won the celebrated Grand Prize of the 7th International Biennial of Arts and Graphics of Cracow in 1969, the C. K. Norwid Art Critics Award in 1970, Franceʼs National Painting Prize in 1991 and Germanyʼs
Goslarer Kaiserring
Since 1975, the Goslarer Kaiserring award has been given, by the city of Goslar, to a distinguished international artist of modern and contemporary art. The award is for artists whose work has given the contemporary art significant impetus. The pr ...
in 1993. He was named Commander of the
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...
(Order of Arts and of Letters) in France. In 2009, he was awarded
Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage
Bogdan Zdrojewski. In 2011, the
President of Poland
The president of Poland ( ), officially the president of the Republic of Poland (), is the head of state of Poland. His or her prerogatives and duties are determined in the Constitution of Poland. The president jointly exercises the executive ...
Bronisław Komorowski
Bronisław Maria Komorowski (; born 4 June 1952) is a Polish politician and historian who was the fifth president of Poland from 2010 to 2015. Komorowski previously served as Ministry of National Defence (Poland), Minister of National Defence ...
awarded him with Commander's Cross of the
Order of Polonia Restituta
The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on alien (law), foreigners for outstanding achievements in ...
. In 2011 Opalka was awarded by the
European Cultural Centre Art Award for his life long depiction of "Time Passing".
Legacy
In 2005 the German art project "Camera Obscura 2005/1-∞" was initiated as an homage to Opałka's life and work.
It honours his work by selling
camera obscuras — with two pinholes — over the internet auction platform
eBay
eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...
. Each pinhole is sold to another buyer, and the camera is subsequently sent back to the project to be developed and exhibited in its gallery, as well as online.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Opalka, Roman
1931 births
2011 deaths
20th-century Polish painters
20th-century French male artists
21st-century Polish painters
20th-century French painters
French conceptual artists
French male painters
21st-century French painters
21st-century French male artists
French people of Polish descent
People from Oise
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw alumni
Polish contemporary artists
Polish male painters