Sigmar Polke

Private Collection (acquired directly from the artist)
Michael Werner Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner

This work is in excellent condition overall. There is an undulation to the sheet, most notably in the top left quadrant and along the bottom edge. There is stray media along the top left edge running vertically, which is inherent to the working method of the artist. The sheet has been hinged verso to the matte. This work has not been examined out of the frame. Framed under Plexiglas.
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Working for nearly 60 years, Sigmar Polke dedicated himself to pushing the boundaries between painting and other artistic media. He often found ways to blend the barriers between these disciplines in order to create arresting images. Untitled from 1999 highlights Polke’s ability to create such an artistic alchemy.

Untitled appears to be much more than the sum of its parts–interference color paint and black paper. The interference color shifts according to the light and angle from which it is viewed on the black surface. Furthermore as opposed to being applied in a uniform manner by the artist, the color seems to simply have appeared on the sheet. The kinetic sense of the color dripping down the page highlights the fact that it is frozen. This luminescence on the one hand and the sense of movement being captured on the other leads to a photographic effect so that the viewer is at first unaware of the exact medium that they are encountering.

Untitled looks very similar to a number of photographic images that the artist created in the 1980s and early 1990s, which utilized materials not often associated with the medium. In these works the photosensitive plates and negatives were irradiated by uranium as opposed to being exposed to light, so that the invisible radiation left a visible mark often in the form of misty or amorphous shapes. These works made visible the invisible rays of radiation.

Exploiting the protean nature of the interference color, the work is part abstraction, part alchemical experimentation–playing with the properties of materials while undoing the aesthetic barriers between media. In the words of Martin Hentschel, the "paint acts like a living, transformable material–the alchemy of the paint is at the same time the mimesis of living nature"  (Martin Hentschel, "Solve et Coagula", Sigmar Polke: The Three Ties of Painting, Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Hamburg, 1997, p. 75).