Galerie Schmela, Dusseldorf

Private Collection, Rhineland

Sale: Sotheby’s, London, Contemporary Art Evening Auction, 14 October 2006, Lot 27

Acquired directly fro🐓m the above by the present owner  𒁏;

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate although fails to convey the iridescent quality of the paint. Condition: This work is in very good condition. The sheet is attached verso to the backing board in several places. There are artist's pinholes in places along the edges and some slight undulation to the sheet.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Emanating from the latter stage of a long and illustrious career which saw Sigmar Polke experiment with painting, collage, film, photography and chemistry, Untitled from 2002 witnesses a return to one of the most enduring motivations within the artist’s oeuvre: the popular and nostalgic image.  Composed as an intriguing system of visual cues which gain dramatic effect in their mutually ambiguous relations, the work reifies the challenge that Polke has extended to his audience since he first began working with found images: the reconciliation of the traditional view of the artist as one who is embedded with enlightened wisdom, with a new position of the artist as creative meddler in the world of ‘mass culture’. Whilst thematic continuities have driven Polke’s practice throughout his use of Pop imagery, this esoteric yet consciously nostalgic work stands testament to the unique nature of the internal systems of signs that Polke builds within each piece

Polke’s initial use of popular imagery responded to the stern optimism of the German post-war Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) of the 1960s, a period that this piece playfully echoes. With a visual language of expressive immediacy through bold monochrome outlines, the representational sections of this piece can be most readily compared to comic book inspired works by Roy Lichtenstein. Similarly their source material remains indistinct and their subjects, often pertaining to clichés and gender stereotypes, function at points of high drama relishing in the camp intensity of graphic literature. Yet in this instance, Polke’s sources seem emphatically, perhaps sarcastically, evasive: these have the appearance of found images but more likely than not they are representations without a specific model, figures of the artists imagination created to work within a network of visual exchange. Subsequently it is at these moments of contrast and conflict between the internal images that Polke has distanced himself most fervently from the holistic imagery of American Pop artists such as Warhol and Lichtenstein.  As noted by Charles Wylie, Polke questions “not only the way images look and are made but also the possible and probable slippages, uncertainties, and misperceptions that can occur when we apprehend them” (Charles Wylie, ‘Send Newspapers”, in: Exhibition Catalogue, Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, Sigmar Polke: Recent Paintings and Drawings, 1998-2002, 2002-03, p. 11).

Through the juxtaposition of asynchronous imagery bound together with interlinked abstract forms and areas of soft shadow and light, Polke offers a rhythmic meditation on the production of images. The recurring motif of the white box, a sense of absence that reappears ghost like across the frame, denotes the format in which an image is most often contained, be it physically or digitally. As a hollow container it references the continued cycle of generation and effacement as images are built and lost within the rapid culture of⛄ imag🌳e production and consumption.

The vibrant strings of luminous forms that substantiate m🗹uch of the background signify interconnectedness; a nexus or a visuꦯal arena in which these images circulate and generate meaning from one another. Images merge with washes of gouache, which resembles a hypnotically pulsating mobile liquid, or waves of rippling fire – the supernatural propulsion of these images into the ether.

Vision and perception is itself a subject expressed in the isolated representational scenes: the shock and horror of the perfectly, near geometric face adds an incipient mystery to and a sense of hyper anxiety mirrored in dramatic stares and the interaction between the male and female figures who anticipate a villainous act. The radio operator connotes reportage, surveillance but also impending crisis. Revཧelation is signified by the figure opening a set of drawers, all of which is offset by the fashionable women to the top right; model-like they function purely for visual dissection, yet their presence is also mystified by 📖an eye mask.

The possibility of a singular narrative is denied with each successive turn to a new image, an insistent ambiguity that Polke approaches with a sense of sarcastic humour typical of his work. Any serious enquiry is simultaneously undermined by the highly affected stylization of these nostalgic images.  As Kathy Halbreich notes, "the caustic humour shadowing his work locates the incongruity of how we expect things to be and how they truly function, between appearances and reality” (Kathy Halbreich, 'Alibis: an Introduction’ in: Exhibition Catalogue, New York, Museum of Modern Art, (and travelling), Alibis: Sigmar Polke, 1963-2010, 2014, p. 70). A relentless mistrust of reason can be linked to the context in which Polke came of age. The artist was born in 1941 at the apex of the Third Reich during which faith in the rationalism of the enlightenment was shattered along with its central concept that reason and knowledge leads to liberation. Conversely Untitled revels in a lack of linear logic that♐ has made Polke one of the most enduringly fascinating and substantially celebrated artists ꧙of our times.