Frédéric Mitterrand, Minister of Culture and Communication pays tribute to the painter Roman Opalka who has just disappeared in Italy.

Roman Opalka was the artist of the time, that time which today the
catch up. After studying in Poland, it was not until 1977 that he
moved to France where he was born. In 1965, he embarked on a
work-life: paint the passage of days.

His canvases were designed from numbers that followed
infinity, on a black background to which he had decided to gradually add
1% white. Over time, the disappearance of the figures had ended by
coincide with that, inexorable, of beings.

We will also remember this emaciated face, which became itself chenu,
that his photographic self-support exhibited in a way
implacable. Ascetic of contemporary art, apostle of radicalism,
Roman Opalka was a monk soldier of painting. After Cy Twombly
and Lucian Freud, another great man is leaving us.