# Roman Opalka artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/roman-opalka/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T18:16:38.949Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: Polish
- Movements: Conceptual art
- Common media: Painting

## Portrait

![Roman Opalka](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Roman_Opalka_%281995%29.png)
Pantalaskas · CC BY-SA 3.0
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_Opalka_(1995).png

## About Roman Opalka

Roman Opałka (1931–2011) was a French-born Polish painter whose work is commonly placed in the context of conceptual art. Public authority records consistently identify him under the accented form Roman Opałka, while descriptions differ slightly in whether they emphasize Polish identity, French nationality, or a French-Polish background. His art is associated with an inquiry into time and temporality, making a work’s conceptual framework important to its interpretation. Collectors may encounter Opałka through paintings and through auction records filed under variant spellings of his name. Careful entity matching matters because the unaccented “Roman Opalka” appears in English-language listings, while authority files use “Roman Opałka.” The collected sources confirm his lifespan, occupation, conceptual-art association, and presence in major authority and museum indexes. They do not, however, establish a detailed chronology, comprehensive series catalogue, or complete list of media.

## Common works and media

The available source pack securely supports paintings and conceptually oriented works concerned with time or temporality. It does not provide enough institution-grade detail to identify particular series, number sequences, prints, drawings, photographs, editions, or other formats as common auction material. An object-specific appraisal should determine the actual medium and format from the work and its documentation rather than applying an assumed series label.

## Market and appraisal context

Appraisal should begin by confirming that a work is correctly attributed to Roman Opałka and by documenting its medium, dimensions, date, inscriptions, provenance, condition, and edition status when applicable. The collected Appraisily signal indicates a substantial body of auction records, but the source pack does not provide lot-level descriptions, realized prices, or a verified price trend. Comparable analysis should use genuinely similar works and match work type, date, scale, condition, provenance, and sale context wherever those fields are available. Variant spellings of the artist’s name should also be checked when searching auction archives. No estimate or market direction should be inferred from the aggregate record count alone.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist-identity research with auction records and, when available, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots. Each object still requires individual attribution, condition, provenance, and comparability review.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q451015
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/5198974/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500103418
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Opa%C5%82ka
- Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Opa%C5%82ka
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/roman-opalka/
- Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_Opalka_(1995).png