Roman Opalka

 

texts in German	installation views a choice of images from previous exhibitions and projects.	Selected Bibliograpy
current exhibitions information about future and current shows. Most recent publications.	List of Exhibitions	jointadventures coverpage

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Roman Opalka in the early seventies	Opalka painting one of his first 'Details'	'A close up of one of the 'Details'	Roman Opalka in the late nineties
Roman's desk in his studio with a photo of Delphi's Auriga and himself	'Opalka's house near Bordeaux	Opalka in front of his canvas	Installation in the Abbaye des Dames Caen, Bretagne Winter 98
The Toyota Museum is the first institution in Japan to host an installation by Opalka	The sound of Opalka's voice countin in Polish can be heard while ap- proaching his space	The viewer can sub- merge in light and looses any common points of reference	Japanese text about the Millenium project

‘The River of Time'

Artist Roman Opalka has painted “time” exclusively since 1965. Not using symbols as
clocks or calendar dates, he paints a sequence of numbers to represent the passing of
time. The canvas size, height and style of digits never changes. Opalka has now passed
the five million mark with over 200 paintings, spending more than half of his life on this
single oeuvre. It will be completed only when he dies. He records the numbers as he
counts in Polish, his mother tongue, and photographs his face at the end of each day’s
painting session. The number paintings, photos, sound and texts are all elements Opalka
uses for his installations on time. The name of this art work is: OPALKA 1965/ 1-oo

Roman Opalka, born in France in 1931, is a true cosmopolitan and lived in France,
Poland, Berlin and New York. Before setting out on his counting voyage “OPALKA
1965/1-oo”, Opalka removed himself in logical steps from figurative work, searching for
a clear approach to represent the irreversibility of time. His works are in the collections
of the MOMA, The Guggenheim Museum, New York, The National Gallery, Berlin, De
Mesnil Foundation, Houston, Centre G. Pompidou, Paris, Toyota Municipal Museum of
Art, Japan and other institutions. Opalka’s retrospective exhibitions, participation at the
XIX Biennial of Sao Paolo, and the 1995 Venice Biennial, as well as his writing
published in several languages brought him world-wide recognition.

For more details about Roman Opalka’s oeuvre please contact
jointadventures Fax (Japan) +81-(0)52 955 0121,
Tel. (Japan) +81-(0)575-34 8335, Europe +49 (0)171- 642 8080