Flashcards on Roman Opalka: Painting Time and Infinity
Roman Opalka: Painting Time and Infinity - An Art Analysis
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Roman Opałka
58 cards
Card 1
Question: Who was Roman Opałka?
Answer: A Polish-French painter and photographer associated with conceptual art (August 27, 1931 – August 6, 2011).
Card 2
Question: When and where was Roman Opałka born?
Answer: August 27, 1931, in Hocquinghen (Abbeville-Saint-Lucien according to the text).
Card 3
Question: When and where did Roman Opałka die, and what was the cause of death?
Answer: August 6, 2011 (at the age of 79), stated as Chieti or Rome; the cause was sepsis.
Card 4
Question: What was Opałka's academic background?
Answer: He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
Card 5
Question: What was Opałka's main artistic activity and the concept of his 1965 project?
Answer: Starting in 1965, he daily painted numbers sequentially from 1 onwards onto canvases (known as 'details'), numbering time as a long-term concept; each
Card 6
Question: How did Opałka record his work besides painting?
Answer: He verbally recorded the numbers onto a tape recorder (counting aloud in Polish) and took a photograph of himself after each canvas.
Card 7
Question: How much time did he spend and how many numbers did Opałka paint daily on average?
Answer: Approximately 6 hours a day, around 20,000–30,000 digits per canvas, which corresponded to roughly 400 complete numbers daily according to the text.
Card 8
Question: What change did Opałka make to the background of his canvases starting in 1972, and why?
Answer: From 1972, he added 1% more white to the gray background of each new canvas to gradually achieve 'white on white' before his death — a metaphor for th
Card 9
Question: What did Opałka call his entire work, and what were the individual canvases and photographs named?
Answer: The entire work had a single title: 'Opalka, 1965, de 1 à l'infini' (or translated as 'From 1 to Infinity'). He called each canvas a 'detail' and each
Card 10
Question: How many canvases did Opałka complete, and what was the last number he painted?
Answer: He completed a total of 233 canvases; the last number painted was 5,671,249 (stated as 5,67,249 in the text).