Sigmar Polke

Sigmar Polke ( born February 13, 1941 in Oels, Lower Silesia, † June 10, 2010 in Cologne ) was a German painter and photographer. His painting was attributed to the post-modern realism ( Capitalist Realism ) and quoted expressions of Pop Art, without being attributable to that style. His attitude to painting contained highly ironic elements.

Life

After the escape of the family in 1945 from Lower Silesia to Thuringia these fled in 1953 from East Germany to West Berlin and then moved to Willich near Mönchengladbach. From 1959 to 1960 Polke completed a glass-painter - teaching in Dusseldorf - Kaiserwerth. In 1961 he began to study at Hoehme and Karl Otto Götz at the Dusseldorf Art Academy, which he finished in 1967.

In 1963 he founded together with Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg Capitalist Realism, an art style that in the conception and realization of the action live with Pop - began a demonstration in favor of capitalist realism. Together with Richter, Lueg and Manfred Kuttner had Polke his first public exhibition at the Imperial Road 31A in Dusseldorf. From 1970 to 1971 he was a visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg and 1977-1991 Professor at the same university. In 1978, he moved to Cologne. In the years 1980 to 1981 Polke made ​​trips to Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea and Australia.

Sigmar Polke was a participant in Documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972 in the Department of Individual mythologies. Also on the Documenta 6 (1977 ) and the Documenta 7 (1982 ), he was represented as an artist. In 1982 he also participated in the group exhibition Zeitgeist. In 1984, he was with the show from here - represented two months new German art in Dusseldorf. In 1988 he participated in the exhibition Made in Cologne. Polke promoted the Pop Art artist Memphis Schulze in its early years.

His greatest public contract awarded Polke with the renewal of the glass window of the Zurich Great Minster, which was awarded to him in 2006 as part of an artist competition. The five - and seven agate glass windows were completed in November 2009 and opened to the public.

Polke was the brother of Wilfrid Polke and John Polke. He died on 10 June 2010 from cancer. His grave is located at the Cologne Melaten Cemetery.

Awards

Works (selection)

The catalog of works by Sigmar Polke includes over 400 works.

The Europe's largest collection of editions of Sigmar Polke has the Museum Ludwig in Cologne as a gift of the Cologne collector Ulrich Reininghausstraße. This is mainly to works on paper ( screen and offset prints, simple prints, photographs, artist's books, posters and invitation cards), including numerous overpainting and therefore unique.