1965/1 - ∞, Detail 

This is Roman Opalka's '1965/1 - ∞, Detail', an acrylic on canvas made in the late 20th century. Opalka's work reduces painting to a system. Beginning in 1965, the artist embarked on a project to paint numbers sequentially from one to infinity. Starting in the top left corner, Opalka painted white numerals on a black canvas. Gradually, he added white to the background, lightening it with each passing painting. He intended to continue until the canvas itself became completely white on white, an act that he believed would coincide with his own death. Opalka’s conceptual exercise reflects Poland’s communist era in which the relentless pursuit of industrial production was a political imperative. Like other conceptual artists of this time, Opalka questioned traditional notions of artistic skill and expression and he critiqued the commercial institutions of the art world. To better understand Opalka's project, consider the social and political history of Poland at this time, in addition to the history of the gallery system that supported his work. The meaning of art lies in its social and institutional context.