Dimensions: 130.5 x 80 cm
signed and dated on the reverse: 'OPAŁKA 65'
Provenance
private collection, Poland
DESA Unicum, 2018
private collection, Warsaw
Bibliography
See:
Bożena Kowalska, Roman Opałka, Kraków 1996, items 13, 14
Biography
He spent the war in Germany; in 1945 he returned to France, and a year later he came to Poland. In 1950, he graduated from the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Łódź, and from 1950 to 1956, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He worked in France beginning in 1965. A representative of conceptualism. Initially, he created etchings (including the series *Opisanie świata* [Description of the World]); later, he created spatial compositions made of canvas, known as “hovercrafts”; and beginning in 1965, he started covering canvases—which he called “details”—with rows of consecutive digits, starting with the number one (the first was inscribed with the numbers 1 through 35,327), which was intended to reflect the passage of time. The canvases were accompanied by a photograph of the artist’s face showing signs of aging and a recording of his voice. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the C.K. Norwid Art Critics’ Award. He participated in the São Paulo Biennial (1969 and 1977), Documenta in Kassel (1977), and the Venice Biennale (1995).
