Sigmar Polke - Untitled - image-1
Sigmar Polke - Untitled - image-2
Sigmar Polke - Untitled - image-1Sigmar Polke - Untitled - image-2

Lot 51 D

Sigmar Polke - Untitled

Auction 1223 - overview Cologne
06.06.2023, 18:00 - Evening Sale - Modern and Contemporary Art
Estimate: 60.000 € - 80.000 €
Result: 50.400 € (incl. premium)

Sigmar Polke

Untitled
1982

Gouache on paper. 100 x 70 cm. Signed and dated 'S.Polke 28 82'. - With studio traces and minor traces of age.

„For me, Polke’s drawing style is a perpetual miracle and mystery. Not nearly enough has been said about what an extraordinary painter he was. One of the most important questions that he asked was: how can you break the habit of skilful drawing and still be able to draw? […] One can think of comics, motifs from the media and caricatures, but none of these prevail. That is what makes the drawings so good,” Benjamin Buchloh’s opinion of Sigmar Polke’s graphic works (in: Alibis. Sigmar Polke 1963-2010, exhib.cat. Museum Ludwig, Cologne 2015, p.211).
As from the beginning of the 1980s, figurative art had been gaining more and more importance in Germany. At this time, Polke was moving in the opposite direction – towards increased abstraction. The drawings he created during this period unite both extremes. Strongly coloured, gestural brushstrokes overlapped with an inexhaustibly rich figurative repertoire, which was fed by a flood of images from the modern environment. Motifs from advertising, magazines, comics, and book illustrations were combined on large-format sheets of paper to create imaginative, often satirical and humorous picture collages.
The outstanding drawing offered here is accentuated by vivid horizontal layers of brushstrokes. Still-life-like nature motifs unite with the depictions of a portrait photograph and an antique bust in an arrangement that is obviously committed to art history.

Provenance

Galerie Marie-Louise Wirth, Zürich (label verso); Hauswedell & Nolte, Hamburg, 06.06.1996, lot 346; Private collection, Rhineland Palatinate