In 1965, Opalka set out to visualize the continuum of time by embarking on an ambitious project: counting to infinity. He adhered to a disciplined process, writing numbers on canvases of identical size using white paint on a dark background. Each brushstroke was made until the paint was depleted, resulting in a subtle, irregular rhythm across the paintings. A shift occurs in Opalka's work starting in 1972, when he reached one million. The artist begins adding 1% more white to the background of each new canvas, causing the numbers to gradually and visibly fade from the surface, creating a visual chronology—the lighter the background, the later the work in the sequence. While painting, he recorded his voice reciting the numbers, and at the end of each workday, he took a photographic portrait of himself following an unchanging setup. By the time of his death, the series comprised 233 canvases. Opalka's final number painted was 5,607,249. By embracing this meticulously systematic approach, Opałka positioned himself alongside contemporaneous artists such as Daniel Buren, On Kawara, and Hanne Darboven, who similarly explored the creation of art using systems and mathematics.