What is the true meaning of the phrase time is of the essence?
A man named Roman Opalka believed he knew what it meant. He spent much of his life defining this by painting it on a canvas, and leaving it behind for us to contemplate and appreciate.
Roman Opalka was born in France to Polish Parents in 1931. He and his family returned to Poland in 1946 and Roman began to study art, getting his degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
It was in 1965 that Roman began to paint numbers in sequence on canvas. He began with the number one and continued painting numbers in succession each day. I know you’re thinking this sounds crazy, but there was a method to Roman’s madness.
The numbers were all the same size and were painted horizontally, starting from the left upper corner and ending in the right lower corner of each canvas. The canvases were always 77 inches by 53 inches, which was the size of his studio door in Warsaw. He always painted the numbers in white and he only used two brush strokes to paint each numeral. Mr. Opalka counted up with his numbers, and the plan was to count up to infinity. He first started these paintings on a black background, then later gray and after that Roman was painting the numbers white on white. The title of his life’s work was: “The Finite Defined by the Non-Finite“.
The idea behind this title is that we define life by realizing our death. Death was the infinite part of Roman’s mathematical calculation. When he painted his last number, the painting and his life was complete. The painting was signed: 1965-∞.
After he began doing this in 1965, Roman incorporated several additional steps to his project. For instance, he began to take pictures of himself in front of the canvas, wearing a white shirt, and he did it directly after he painted a number. He also started speaking these numbers into recording device. Roman was marking time progressively to his death. He kept the time through the numbers. His work is beyond what most of us think of when thinking about the meaning of dedication.
In 1977, Roman moved back to France. Roman continuously painted numbers for 51 years. His essence was in the numbers because the numbers were symbols of the time passing in his life. Roman said:
“Time as we live it and as we create it embodies our progressive disappearance; we are at the same time alive and in the face of death–that is the mystery of all living beings. The consciousness of this inevitable disappearance broadens our experiences without diminishing our joy. There is always the omnipresent idea of nature, of its ebb and flow of life. This essence of reality can be universally understood; it is not only mine but can be commonly shared in our one world.”
It is such a cool thought that someone could have such a sincere appreciation of life under the constant self-reminder of death. Roman welcomed the good and the bad, learning from every experience while still enjoying all that life has to offer. This guy was deep. He literally pursued infinity through his art. He called each number entry a detail. In Roman’s words:
“The fundamental basis of my work, to which I have dedicated my life, manifests itself in a process of recording a progression that both documents time and defines time. It began on a single date in 1965, the one on which I undertook my first detail. Each detail is a part of a greater idea conceived on that date. My work records the progression to infinity, through the first and the last number painted on the canvas.”
Chasing the infinite is a tricky business, since the time of reaching the infinite, which he is defining as death, is unknown, yet ever existing right along with his life. Christie’s sold three of Roman’s paintings for the sum of 3.5 million dollars. Christie’s reviewed his work by stating the following: “Roman Opalka’s work consists of an incredibly disciplined, poetically restrained and austerely elegant means of capturing and crystallizing the passing of time.” Imagine each of these numbered paintings, white on white, selling for over a million dollars each.
His art has been on display at the New York Museum of Modern Art. The paintings at the end of his life look quite stark. These white on white paintings were usually hung on white walls. Roman often taught lessons on how to paint white on white. He loved teaching, but not as much as he loved the idea of documenting time progressing to infinity.
It’s amazing that most people didn’t think he was crazy. In fact, most of us know that our infinity, or death, is an ever-existing factor. Somewhere deep down there we know it is lurking. We just choose to ignore it or not think about it most of the time. Many of us find it downright depressing! Who likes to think about death? Well, besides Roman; who does that? When there are even remote signs of aging, many older people run to plastic surgeons to literally erase time from their faces. OK, so a lot of them look like lizards after they are done, but they still try to get rid of time on their faces because aging looks too much like a progression to death. Whether we admit it or not, time will indeed march on. Roman realized this early on in his life and he dedicated himself to keeping-time each and every day. Roman didn’t loathe the thought of death; he relished all that he was experiencing between death and the number one.
Roman Opalka in front of one of his paintings
There were times when Roman traveled and he had to make special arrangements so that he could keep recording time each day, even though he did not have access to the paintings in his studio. Once he said:
“I always finished the detail in my work long before a possible trip, and I continued to inscribe the continuation of numbers in black ink, on white ordinary paper.”
This way, just like online.net, Roman never stopped keeping-time.
Traveling was difficult in Roman’s younger days because of the Soviet Bloc. Roman once talked about what he had to go through in order to travel back then. Roman told of a time in which he needed authorization from his home country so that he could go abroad. Inhabitants of what was then called the Soviet Bloc could not use passports freely. They were only allowed to travel for short periods of time and under very rigorous conditions. One of the conditions was the time frame between the request and eventual confirmation of this request. Frequently, passports were not granted very often, but if a passport was granted, they complicated things more when trying to obtain a visa. If a visa was gotten, one could only travel further by making a new request at the embassy of each country. These visas would depend on questionnaires, time frames and other strange complications of the Cold War. If the passport was not given to the Office of Passports of the country three days from an agreed date, it was confiscated.
Despite all these complications, Roman managed to continue to paint his numbers and show his life progression through his art. He didn’t leave too many other works behind since chasing infinity was taking up most of his time.
Roman’s time did stop, though.
He finally reached infinity.
Many spoke of his passing and listed the methodologies of his life’s work. There wasn’t too much talk of Roman being insane. People generally liked his work. Mortality is something we all face; while keeping that in mind, Roman couldn’t be criticized for being crazy. Quite the contrary, Roman is probably one of the sanest people that ever existed. Realizing infinity as your end and discussing it or acting on that realization daily is altruistic. He wanted others to interpret his art and use it to further their own good. His art is a statement that says a lot. It sets an example for others who are confused or perhaps deny their own mortality. Roman lived every day like it might be his last, which is something that all of us should do more often. He took it all in and at the same time realizing that the infinity is the unknown, and that any given day could be his last. If we all lived like that, we would probably make better decisions and we would overlook a lot less in life. Maybe we would celebrate and appreciate life a little more.
Roman Opalka's Final Number: 5,607,249
They say art imitates life. In Roman’s case this is especially true. The dedication that it took to do all of these paintings each day of his life since 1965 is a rarity. Most of us would get tired and give up. Not Roman Opalka. He really believed in what he did. He gave so much of his time and life for this project and we applaud him for manually keeping time progressing to infinity. He had lectured a great deal about his art and its meaning. There were contemporary art platforms such as the organization called Personal Structures that brought some of Roman’s work to the forefront of the world of art. Personal Structures organized a symposium series at the Ludwig Museum in Germany, and they invited Roman to participate in discussions about the concepts of time, space and existence.
While in Italy, Roman fell ill with a generalized infection.
The last number he painted was 5,607,249.
This was the day that he reached infinity.
Roman had finally defined the non-finite and died on August 6, 2011.
Roman’s work will go on display all over the world in the coming months. Italy, France and Germany will have it first.
You can check his website for upcoming showings.
Here at OnlineClock.net we commend Roman Opalka and his lifelong dedication to keeping time!
The Man Who Painted Infinity is a post from: Alarm Clock Blog, the official blog of the original Online Alarm Clock.
Related posts: