White Time. Lecture with Tommaso Trini

23 May 2019 @ 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
On the occasion of the first large Italian retrospective of Roman Opałka’s work at BUILDING, a conference of theoretical and critical study will be held with the critic Tommaso Trini, a former friend and translator of the Franco-Polish artist. A minimal narrative of the animated biography of the work that precedes his major program, OPALKA 1965 /1-∞,will set the ethical and geometric essence of this “amanuensis philosopher”.

With this program, from 1 to his death, he will stop along the notion of genetic integer number, the double temporal and chromatic progression, the progressive visual protocols: “I paint the painting” and the waves of the numbers, the self-portraits of the face, the recording of counting in Polish and, in particular, his double diagonal “white on white”, already sketched in Chronome (1963) and Fonemat (1964).
The joint presence of Bosiljka Jovanovič, Serbian mathematician, will help to clarify some notions about numbers. This important Milanese exhibition is part of a two-chapter exhibition held also in the Querini Stampalia Foundation, Venice, with the precious presence of two Détail, which are rare to see – the first “counted” canvas from 1965, from the Łódź museum, and the last all-white canvas but interrupted by the death of the artist and therefore completion of this work “from 1 to infinity”. A good opportunity to talk about the current ethical and conceptual teachings of a true master.