In 1965, French-born Polish artist Roman Opalka (1931 – 2011) picked up a No. 0 brush in his Warsaw studio and painted the number “1” at the top left- hand corner of a canvas. This gesture marked the beginning of an enterprise later titled 1965 / 1 – ∞, which would consume the artist in a quest to paint every number to infinity. By the time of his death, Opalka had placed more than five million numerals on 233 canvases and took photographs of himself each day in front of the work. Dominique Lévy gallery pays tribute to Opalka’s unique practice with Roman Opalka: Painting ∞, an overview of Opalka’s career.
Opalka’s work reflects his simultaneous rage against and embrace of human mortality and time. There is poignancy to be found in his deliberately mechanical method of counting numbers—a poetic inquiry into the mutability of time.
Roman Opalka Etude sur le mouvement, 1960. Photograph: Vincent Lespinasse
Roman Opalka OPALKA 1965/1 – ∞, Détail – Photo 3685005. Photograph: Vincent Lespinasse
Roman Opalka OPALKA 1965/1 – ∞, Détail – Photo 5455634. Photograph: Vincent Lespinasse
Roman Opalka Chronome No. 2, 1963. Photograph: Vincent Lespinasse
by Louise Lui
Roman Opalka: Painting ∞ will run from September 2 until October 18, 2014 at Dominique Lévy, 909 Madison Avenue, New York City
All images © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris