Lot 75 D

Sigmar Polke is often referred to as one of the most innovative painters and interdisciplinary artists of postwar Germany. He is known for his experimental approach to art, using different styles as well as photography over the years. In the 1980s, he returns to painting as his primary mode of working. Here, he uses his interest in alchemy to create pigments, such as purple made from mucus extracted from snails or yellow created from arsenic, both of which may have been used in the work Untitled from 1986. Polke pours the colour substances onto the canvas and then subtly controlls the paint’s movement by swaying the canvas. The process is unpredictable, allowing the paint to decide the direction it takes.
Polke, along with Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg, helps launch the Capitalist Realism movement. This movement focuses on Germany’s growing consumer culture and media-saturated society and is influenced by the American Pop Art movement. We can see this influence in Untitled, where the background shows similarities to the dotted patterns in works by Roy Lichtenstein.