Sigmar Polke
One of the most important and influential figures on the artistic scene today, Sigmar Polke began his career as a painter in 1963. A number of drawings from the first decade of his activity, most of which has never been seen in the United States, have been assembled for Sigmar Polke: Works on Paper, 1963-1974. Ranging from ballpoint and felt-tipped pen drawings devoted to "Capitalist Realism" imagery to a series of monumental works from the 1970s, the selection of about 180 drawings and some twenty sketchbooks illustrate all the themes and techniques that Polke explored during this time. Polke was born in East Germany in 1941. At the age of twelve he moved to Dusseldorf, where he studied at the Kunstakademie and produced his first work. Although his work is contemporaneous to American Pop art, Polke demonstrates a different relationship to consumerism than his American counterparts. Rather than showing the glories of modern life, he distorts or disrupts the ready-made iconography, filling it with a personal message. Exhibitions of drawings have been organized in Europe; they have never been fully shown to an American audience. If you want consistency in an artist, you will never find it in Polke. His imagination i
One series was made in a Brazilian gay bar, another in an Afghani opium den, and a third shows a vicious dog and bear fight. One set of drawings he did in 1968 has images cut out of magazines, which Polke elaborates to comic effect with ballpoint pen. " They were four large-scale works from 1969-1971. A painter, Brice Marden once said," The idea of beauty can be offensive. Some people think that his art is an indictment of the values of those responsible for the ruination of World War II. In these works Polke brings together the Pop imagery of the 1960s drawings with the hallucinatory energy of the "Ride on the Eight of Infinity" series. The final "Eight of Infinity" work, which is 14 foot long, is more diffuse. Polke's early paintings, from the late '60s and the '70s, are ironic to American Pop. " It's an overhead view of a man on a motorcycle. A lot of people believe that when Polke did the Motorcycle series he was under the influence of LSD's. That gave everyone the idea Polke had returned to the simpler, Pop inspired imagery of the 1960s. Later there were many museum and gallery shows, but many Americans had a lot to learn from Polke's art. Brown oil stains cover most of the drawing and he added shiny, brown adhesive tape.
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Acceptance Essays
