Sigmar Polke

First published 14 April 2020

Similarly, lens-based German artist Sigmar Polke (Figure 9) applies radical techniques, such as creating in-camera multi-exposures and omitting, bypassing and reversing steps in the darkroom to subvert traditional ideals of the medium.[1] The artist documents his life and surroundings, “altering the aesthetic heredity of his mediums by debasing the integrity of each, cultivating crossovers of material and meaning” (Halbreich 2016, 69). Like myself, Polke is as self-taught photographer, considers “the darkroom as an arena for exploration” and displays a recklessness for “the conventions of photography [which] often resulted in scratched negatives, under- and overexposures, and prints that further obscured details to create visually disorienting compositions” (The J. Paul Getty Museum 2007).

Sigmar Polke, Untitled (Mariette Althaus), c. 1973, unique gelatin silver print, 180x240mm

Sigmar Polke, Untitled (Sigmar Polke), c. 1975, photograph on AGFA C90 paper, 210x296mm

Sigmar Polke, Untitled (Obelisk, Paris), c. 1970. Courtesy Kicken Berlin, Berlin & Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf

Footnotes

An in-camera multi-exposure is when the film is rewound in the camera and repeatedly exposed, resulting in montage-like images embedded directly into the negative.

Keywords

Sigmar Polke, Painting, Photography, Capitalist realism, Abstract, Art, Community of practice, Expressionism, Contemporary, Alternative, Film, Darkroom, Courage, Pushing boundaries

References

Polke, Sigmar. c. 1975. Untitled (Obelisk, Paris). Image. https://news.artnet.com/market/sigmar-polke-at-paris-photo-11451237.

Polke, Sigmar. c. 1973, Untitled (Mariette Althaus). Image. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/149078.

Polke, Sigmar. c. 1975. Untitled (Sigmar Polke). Image. https://www.maxhetzler.com/zh/exhibitions/sigmar-polke-zeitreise-photographs-1966-1986collection-georg-polke-2020/works/#img27.

Rowell, Margit, Michael Semff, and Bice Curiger. 1999. Sigmar Polke WORKS on PAPER 1963-1974. New York: Museum Of Modern Art. PDF. https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_187_300100396.pdf.

Squires, Carol and George Baker 2013. What Is a Photograph?. New York: International Center for Photography and DelMonico Books.

Thistlewood, David. 1996. Sigmar Polke: Back to Postmodernity. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press And Tate Gallery Liverpool.

Williams, Gregory. 2016. "Gregory H. Williams. Review of 'Alibis: Sigmar Polke, 1963–2010' by Kathy Halbreich". caa.reviews. http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/2337#.Yq2CS-xBzUI.

Halbreich, Kathy, Mark Godfrey, Lanka Tattersall, and Magnus Schaefer. 2014. Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010. London: Tate Publishing.