Roman Opałka

Roman Opałka (Polish: ; 27 August 1931 – 6 August 2011) was a French-born Polish painter, whose works are mostly associated with conceptual art.

Life and death Opałka was born on 27 August 1931 in Abbeville-Saint-Lucien, France, to Polish parents. The family returned to Poland in 1946 and Opałka studied lithography at a graphics school before enrolling in the School of Art and Design in Łódź. He later earned a degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He moved back to France in 1977.

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.

Legacy In 2005, the German art project "Camera Obscura 2005/1-∞" was initiated as an homage to Opałka's life and work.