Sigmar Polke - Untitled
Sigmar Polke
Untitled
1993
Acrylic and lacquer on printed fabric. 90 x 70 cm. Framed. Signed and dated 'S. Polke 93' verso on fabric and stamped 'SIGMAR POLKE' (barely legible) on fabric and on stretcher in red.
The patterned fabric, which serves as the painting ground in the work from 1993, represents a visual level which Polke alienates and transforms through his painterly interventions. In doing so, he creates a dynamic tension between the predetermined order of the fabric pattern and the organic, sometimes seemingly random structure of his lacquer and acrylic overlays. “Seeing things as they are always means seeing the things behind the things. They do not exist alone, they are composed of other things, recursively and ad infinitum.” (Britta Schmitz, Zweigeteilt, in: Sigmar Polke, Die Drei Lügen der Malerei, exhib.cat. Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin 1997, n.pag.). A central element in Polke's work is the deliberate use of grid dots, which dominate in this work. This technique refers to image production in mass media, in particular to the reproduction techniques of offset printing and photography, which Polke repeatedly reflects on ironically. “I like the technical means, the cliché character of the grid. It makes me think of duplication and reproduction, which is also closely related to copying. I like the impersonal, neutral and fabricated. For me, the grid is a system, a principle, a method, a structure. It dissects, disperses, organises and makes everything the same.” (Sigmar Polke, in: Alibis, Sigmar Polke 1963-2010, exhib.cat. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Munich 2014, p. 59). Polke combines different pictorial levels and techniques that oscillate between abstraction and figuration. The irregular white lines and shapes that extend across the painting are reminiscent of geological structures or organic tissue, which engage in an exciting dialogue with the precise grid points. This superimposition of chaotic and controlled pictorial elements illustrates Polke's interest in the field of tension between order and chance, logic and chaos, clarity and blurriness.
Certificate
We would like to thank Michael Trier, Cologne, for helpful information.
Provenance
Galerie Erhard Klein, Bonn; private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
Sigmar Polke
Untitled
1993
Acrylic and lacquer on printed fabric. 90 x 70 cm. Framed. Signed and dated 'S. Polke 93' verso on fabric and stamped 'SIGMAR POLKE' (barely legible) on fabric and on stretcher in red.
The patterned fabric, which serves as the painting ground in the work from 1993, represents a visual level which Polke alienates and transforms through his painterly interventions. In doing so, he creates a dynamic tension between the predetermined order of the fabric pattern and the organic, sometimes seemingly random structure of his lacquer and acrylic overlays. “Seeing things as they are always means seeing the things behind the things. They do not exist alone, they are composed of other things, recursively and ad infinitum.” (Britta Schmitz, Zweigeteilt, in: Sigmar Polke, Die Drei Lügen der Malerei, exhib.cat. Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin 1997, n.pag.). A central element in Polke's work is the deliberate use of grid dots, which dominate in this work. This technique refers to image production in mass media, in particular to the reproduction techniques of offset printing and photography, which Polke repeatedly reflects on ironically. “I like the technical means, the cliché character of the grid. It makes me think of duplication and reproduction, which is also closely related to copying. I like the impersonal, neutral and fabricated. For me, the grid is a system, a principle, a method, a structure. It dissects, disperses, organises and makes everything the same.” (Sigmar Polke, in: Alibis, Sigmar Polke 1963-2010, exhib.cat. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Munich 2014, p. 59). Polke combines different pictorial levels and techniques that oscillate between abstraction and figuration. The irregular white lines and shapes that extend across the painting are reminiscent of geological structures or organic tissue, which engage in an exciting dialogue with the precise grid points. This superimposition of chaotic and controlled pictorial elements illustrates Polke's interest in the field of tension between order and chance, logic and chaos, clarity and blurriness.
Certificate
We would like to thank Michael Trier, Cologne, for helpful information.
Provenance
Galerie Erhard Klein, Bonn; private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
