1965/ 1-00 (Detail 3682629-3685681)

Roman Opalka was a leading Conceptual artist best known for his series of numerical paintings. A few years after his birth in Hocquincourt, France, he and his Polish family returned to their motherland, only to be deported to Germany by National Socialists in 1940. In 1946, the Opalka family was liberated by the US Army, and they returned to Poland once again. Opalka began an apprenticeship as a lithographer at Walbrzych Nowa Ruda Graphic School, Poland, and, in 1949, he began his studies at the Lódz School of Art and Design, Poland. In 1956, the artist received a degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he had studied since 1950.

Abbeville-Saint-Lucien, France