Sigmar Polke Biography and Artwork

born Olesnica (POLAND) 1941

Sigmar Polke (born 1941 in Oels, Silesia, now Olesnica, Poland) is a German artist. His family escaped from the Communist regime in East Germany in 1953. Upon his arrival in West Germany, in Wittich, Polke began to spend time in galleries and museums and worked as an apprentice in a stained glass factory called Dusseldorf Kaiserwerth, before entering the Dusseldorf Kunstakademie (Art School) at age twenty. There he made paintings that incorporated photographs on the canvas. Upon graduation in 1968, he published a portfolio of fourteen photographs made with a borrowed camera depicting his tabletop sculptures and his performances. Over the next four years, he made thousands of photographs that were never printed and several films that were never edited, both for lack of money. Self-taught in photography, Polke experimented with chemical developers and fixers, incorporating mistakes and elements of chance into his finished work.

With fellow student Gerhard Richter he formulated at the art academie a Pop called "Capitalist Realism". It's an anti-style of art, appropriating the pictorial short-hand of advertizing. This title also referred to the realist style of art known as "Socialist Realism", then the official art doctrine of the Soviet Union (which he had fled from with his family), but it also commented upon the consumer-driven art "doctrine" of western capitalism. The anarchistic element of the work Polke developed was largely engendered by his mercurial approach. His irreverence for traditional painting techniques and materials and his lack of allegiance to any one mode of representation has established his now-respected reputation as a visual revolutionary. Paganini, an expression of "the difficulty of purging the demons of Nazism" - witness the "hidden" swastikas - is typical of Polke's tendency to accumulate a range of different mediums within one canvas. It is not unusual for Polke to combine household materials and paint, lacquers, pigments, screen print and transparent sheeting in one piece. A complicated "narrative" is often implicit in the multi-layered picture, giving the effect of witnessing the projection of a hallucination or dream through a series of veils.

Polke embarked on a series of world travels throughout the 1970s, photographing in Pakistan, Paris, New York, Afghanistan, and Brazil. He also intermittently taught art in Germany from 1970 to 1978; he then settled in Cologne, where he continues to live and work.

Select Timeline

• 1941 - Born in Oels/Schlesien, East Germany
• 1945 - Family flees to Thuringen, East Germany
• 1953 - Emigrates to West Berlin and then settles in Dusseldorf, West Germany
• 1963 - Founds Kapitalistischen Realismus(Capitalistic Realism), a painting movement with Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg (later called Konrad Fischer); Demonstrative Ausstellung, store-front exhibition in Dusseldorf with Kuttner, Lueg & Richter
• 1964 - Neodada Pop Decollage Kapitalistischer Realismus, Galerie Rene Block, Berlin; Awarded the Young Germans award in Baden-Baden with Klaus Geldmacher and Dieter Krieg
• 1961 - 1967 - Studies at the Dusseldorf Art Academy under Karl Otto Goetz and Gerhard Hoehme
• 1975 - Awarded the prize for painting at the XIII Bienal de Sao Paulo
• 1986 - Awarded a Golden Lion at the XLII Biennale di Venezia
• 1988 - Awarded the 1988 Baden-Wurttemberg International Prize for Painting
• 1977 - 1991 - Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Hamburg
• 1995 - Carnegie Award at the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• 1998 - International Center of Photography, Infinity Award for Art; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York
• 2002 - "Praemium Imperiale" awarded by the Japan Art Association

Select Exhibitions

• 1972 - Galerie des Goethe-Instituts, Provisorium, Amsterdam
• 1973 - Franz Liszt kommt gern zu mir zum Fernsehen, Westfalischer Kunstverein, Munster
• 1974 - Original + Falschung, Stadtisches Kunstmuseum, Bonn (with Achim Duchow)
• 1975 - Mu Nieletnam Netorruprup, Kunsthalle zu Kiel und Schleswig-Holstein
• 1977 - Sigmar Polke -Fotos / Achim Duchow - Projektionen, Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel
• 1977 - Sigmar Polke - Fotos, Galerie Klein, Bonn
• 1978 - InK, Halle fur internationale neue Kunst, Zurich
• 1979 - Galerie Bama, Paris
• 1980 - Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne
• 1982 - Holly Solomon Gallery, New York
• 1983 - Zeichnungen 1963-1968, Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
• 1983 - Sigmar Polke - Carte/Fotografie/Tele, Studio d'Arte Cannaviello, Milan
• 1983 - Sigmar Polke - 39 Fotounikate, Galerie Thomas Borgmann, Cologne
• 1984 - Kunsthaus, Zurich, Kunsthalle Koln
• 1986 - Mary Boone Gallery, New York
• 1986 - Athanor. Il padiglione, Pavillon der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, XLII Biennale di Venezia, Venice
• 1988 - Sigmar Polke, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, ARC
• 1989 - Sigmar Polke - Fotografien Paris 1971, Jablonka Galerie, Cologne
• 1990 - Sigmar Polke. Das photographische Werk, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden
• 1991 - Sigmar Polke, The Brooklyn Museum, New York
• 1991 - Sigmar Polke, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
• 1991 - Sigmar Polke, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C.
• 1992 - Sigmar Polke. Schilderijen, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• 1993 - Sigmar Polke. Gemeinschaftswerk Aufschwung Ost, Bruno Brunnet Fine Arts, Berlin
• 1994 - Sigmar Polke, Carre d'Art, Musee d'Art Contemporain, Nimes, France
• 1995 - Sigmar Polke. Join The Dots, Tate Gallery Liverpool, Liverpool, GB
• 1996 - Sigmar Polke. Arbeiten auf Papier, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A., Luxemburg
• 1997 - Sigmar Polke. Die drei Lugen der Malerei, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn (then Berlin)
• 1998 - Sigmar Polke. Printing Mistakes 1996-98, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
• 1999 - Sigmar Polke: Works on Paper, 1963-1974, Museum of Modern Art, New York, (then Hamburg)
• 2000 - Sigmar Polke. Die Alten, Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona
• 2001 - Sigmar Polke. Music of Unclear Origin, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (then to Milton Keynes)
• 2002 - Sigmar Polke, Ishizaka Art, Spark Inc, Tokyo
• 2002 - Sigmar Polke. Recent Paintings and Drawings, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
• 2003 - Sigmar Polke. Original + Falschung, Rupertinum Salzburg
• 2004 - Sigmar Polke - Fotografien 1964 - 2000, Springer & Winckler Galerie, Berlin
• 2004 - The History of Everything, The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
• 2005 - Alice in Wonderland, Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
• 2005 - Sigmar Polke. Works & Days, Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich
• 2005 - Sigmar Polke: Music From an Unknown Source, Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts, Vietnam
• 2005 - Stratification: an installation of works since 1960, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge
• 2005 - Sigmar Polke, Photographs 1969 - 1974, Nyehaus, New York
• 2005 - Sigmar Polke - Ausgesuchte Werke, Galerie Karl Pfefferle, Munich
• 2005 - Sigmar Polke - Fotografien 1964-1968/1990, Galerie Stefan Ropke, Cologne
• 2005 - Sigmar Polke - Vintage Photographs from a Private Collection, Galerie Judin / Haunch of Venision, Zurich
• 2006 - Sigmar Polke - Alice in Wonderland, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Osaka
• 2006 - Implosion, Anton Kern Gallery, New York
• 2006 - Mythologies, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• 2006 - Sigmar Polke: 64 Photographs from 1977, Springer & Winckler Galerie, Berlin
• 2006 - Frontiers: Collecting the Art of our Time Worcester Art Museum, MA
• 2006 - Sigmar Polke: Photographs 1960-2005, Stadtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim

Select Artwork

• Kolner Bettler I, II, III, IV, 1972
• Lackmus
• Ohne Titel, 2004
• Why don't you bring me presents?

Quotes

Publications

• Sigmar Polke: Paintings, Photographs, and Films - by Gloria Moure, Sigmar Polke, Ediciones Poligrafa S.A. (January 15, 2003)
• Sigmar Polke: History of Everything, Paintings and Drawings 1998-2003 - by John R. Lane, Charles Wylie, Dave Hickey, Dallas Museum of Art (November 1, 2003)
• Sigmar Polke: Works on Paper 1963-1974 - by Margit Rowell, Bice Curiger, Michael Semff, Sigmar Polke, Museum of Modern Art, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Harry N. Abrams; Illustrate edition (March 1999)
• Sigmar Polke: Works & Days - by Sigmar Polke, Bice Curiger, Hartmut Bohme, Ulli Seegers, Dumont; Bk&Poster edition (August 15, 2005)
• Sigmar Polke: Photoworks : When Pictures Vanish - by Sigmar Polke, Maria Morris Hambourg, Paul Schimmel, Russell Ferguson, John Alan Farmer, Sue Henger, Calif.) Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Site Santa Fe (Gallery), Corcoran Gallery of Art, Scalo Publishers (February 1996)
• Sigmar Polke: The Early Drawings, 1963-1969 - by Johannes Gachnang, Sigmar Polke, Catherine Schelbert, Gachnang & Springer (June 1991)
• Sigmar Polke: Photographs 1969-1974 - by Sigmar Polke, Foundation 20 21; Boxed edition (May 30, 2006)

Quick Facts

• Polke's family escaped from the Communist regime in East Germany in 1953.
• In 1968, he published a portfolio of fourteen photographs made with a borrowed camera depicting his tabletop sculptures and his performances.
• With fellow student Gerhard Richter he formulated at the art academie a Pop called "Capitalist Realism". It's an anti-style of art, appropriating the pictorial short-hand of advertizing.
• Polke embarked on a series of world travels throughout the 1970s, photographing in Pakistan, Paris, New York, Afghanistan, and Brazil.

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