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Lot Essay
'Painting, far from being a redundant practice in an era of mechanical, electronic and digital communications is shown by Polke to be a resourceful medium equipped to investigate the complexities of contemporary experience' (S. Rainbird, 'Seams and Appearances', Sigmar Polke: Join the dots, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, Liverpool 1995, p. 9).
A mesmerising painting that extends to two metres in length, Untitled is a visionary landscape that stands on the very edge of abstraction. Executed in 1990, the year of Sigmar Polke's critically acclaimed exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, it provides a profound insight into the mind of the pioneering artist and is a highpoint of his artistic exploration up to this point. Painted using oils and such unusual mediums as silver compound, it is a work that reflects Polke's interest in alchemical transformation and his extensive use during this period of rare, precious and often transmutative materials. Using the most delicate of colours, Polke here conveys a dream-like scene with peach and soft yellows occasionally heightened by the silver deposits that together glisten according to the fall of light on the white background canvas, giving it an ethereal glow. These slightly enigmatic presences reveal a strangely empty, yet magical landscape. The whole scene is in a state of flux as Polke's fluid, swirling brushwork transforms it into a fantasy bordering on abstract that invites viewers to join him in the enveloping, trance-like vision.
The superposition of various layered forms exhibited in Untitled is a technique that Polke has employed to great effect throughout his oeuvre. Initially implemented after experimenting with the mind enhancing effects of hallucinogenic drugs, his use of the technique reflects his interest in expanding the possibilities of art and depicting several layers of consciousness at the same time. Reminiscent in some respects of Francis Picabia's celebrated 1927-1932 Transparencies, in which Picabia painted several images, one on top of the other, both artists use the system to depict multiple streams of perception existing simultaneously. In Untitled, the background has a central application of gleaming, translucent yellow paint that appears nonchalantly splashed on the canvas. Whilst abstract on its own, when combined with the glassy layers of paint above, it seems reminiscent of a radiating sun hovering above a body of shimmering water, surrounded by some form of landscape in a manner not dissimilar to that of a painting such as Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe (1863). The swirling brush marks, which although ambiguous, do appear to brilliantly come together to form the bowl and reclining figure visible in Manet's masterpiece.
Untitled% is reflective of a volatile world, in which reality is seen and experienced through multiple layers of consciousness. Influenced by Werner Heisenberg's'uncertainty principle' which espouses that life is neither a fixed nor stable phenomenon but a series of shifting contexts, Untitled is based upon simultaneous and manifold views of reality colliding within the fixed environment of the picture plane. This serves to reveal the limited and confining nature of conventional imagery as well as illustrating how painting can provide liberation from such entrapment. As Sean Rainbird pointed out on the occasion of Polke's first exhibition at the Tate in 1995, 'painting, far from being a redundant practice in an era of mechanical, electronic and digital communications is shown by Polke to be a resourceful medium equipped to investigate the complexities of contemporary experience' (S. Rainbird, 'Seams and Appearances', in Sigmar Polke: Join the dots, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, Liverpool, 1995, p. 9).
Just as the subject is a reflection of the complexities of contemporary experience, so too does Untitled's medium respond to the advances of a post-modern society. From the early 1980s, Polke began the well-known series of alchemical experiments that continued to the end of his life. He mixed together traditional pigments with solvents, varnishes, toxins and resins to produce spontaneous chemical reactions that produced elaborate, dazzling abstract works in which the paintings serve as his laboratory and become the objects of his experiments. Through this engagement with unconventional materials, Polke ensured the works changed their appearance as the viewer moves around them. These magnificent and unique pieces can be seen in the large wall painting responding to variations in humidity, which Polke made for the German pavilion in the 1986 Venice Biennale, or the large mural painting changing with the temperature that he created for his Paris retrospective in 1988. Untitled comes at the height of his mastery of such techniques, and his use of silver compound means that the painting is mutable, shimmering in and out of visibility with great poetic resonance.
A photograph cannot effectively capture the effect of standing before Untitled. The artistic deity, Polke brings life to a painting by giving it the ability to respond to its environment, restoring its original, magical presence that some suggested had been lost with the advent of photography. The influential German critic Walter Benjamin in his 1936 essay 'The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction' suggested that paintings had lost their aura because photography permitted them to be reproduced, calling into question the originality and authenticity. However, with Polke's Untitled, this is no longer the case. What is particularly significant is Polke has done this using chemicals that form the foundation of the modern negative and print developing, and so has restored the aura of painting using techniques borrowed from photography. In this way, in a form of inter-media experimentation he has brilliantly managed to synthesize the media of painting, drawing and photography in a work brimming with innovation.
A mesmerising painting that extends to two metres in length, Untitled is a visionary landscape that stands on the very edge of abstraction. Executed in 1990, the year of Sigmar Polke's critically acclaimed exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, it provides a profound insight into the mind of the pioneering artist and is a highpoint of his artistic exploration up to this point. Painted using oils and such unusual mediums as silver compound, it is a work that reflects Polke's interest in alchemical transformation and his extensive use during this period of rare, precious and often transmutative materials. Using the most delicate of colours, Polke here conveys a dream-like scene with peach and soft yellows occasionally heightened by the silver deposits that together glisten according to the fall of light on the white background canvas, giving it an ethereal glow. These slightly enigmatic presences reveal a strangely empty, yet magical landscape. The whole scene is in a state of flux as Polke's fluid, swirling brushwork transforms it into a fantasy bordering on abstract that invites viewers to join him in the enveloping, trance-like vision.
The superposition of various layered forms exhibited in Untitled is a technique that Polke has employed to great effect throughout his oeuvre. Initially implemented after experimenting with the mind enhancing effects of hallucinogenic drugs, his use of the technique reflects his interest in expanding the possibilities of art and depicting several layers of consciousness at the same time. Reminiscent in some respects of Francis Picabia's celebrated 1927-1932 Transparencies, in which Picabia painted several images, one on top of the other, both artists use the system to depict multiple streams of perception existing simultaneously. In Untitled, the background has a central application of gleaming, translucent yellow paint that appears nonchalantly splashed on the canvas. Whilst abstract on its own, when combined with the glassy layers of paint above, it seems reminiscent of a radiating sun hovering above a body of shimmering water, surrounded by some form of landscape in a manner not dissimilar to that of a painting such as Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe (1863). The swirling brush marks, which although ambiguous, do appear to brilliantly come together to form the bowl and reclining figure visible in Manet's masterpiece.
Untitled% is reflective of a volatile world, in which reality is seen and experienced through multiple layers of consciousness. Influenced by Werner Heisenberg's'uncertainty principle' which espouses that life is neither a fixed nor stable phenomenon but a series of shifting contexts, Untitled is based upon simultaneous and manifold views of reality colliding within the fixed environment of the picture plane. This serves to reveal the limited and confining nature of conventional imagery as well as illustrating how painting can provide liberation from such entrapment. As Sean Rainbird pointed out on the occasion of Polke's first exhibition at the Tate in 1995, 'painting, far from being a redundant practice in an era of mechanical, electronic and digital communications is shown by Polke to be a resourceful medium equipped to investigate the complexities of contemporary experience' (S. Rainbird, 'Seams and Appearances', in Sigmar Polke: Join the dots, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, Liverpool, 1995, p. 9).
Just as the subject is a reflection of the complexities of contemporary experience, so too does Untitled's medium respond to the advances of a post-modern society. From the early 1980s, Polke began the well-known series of alchemical experiments that continued to the end of his life. He mixed together traditional pigments with solvents, varnishes, toxins and resins to produce spontaneous chemical reactions that produced elaborate, dazzling abstract works in which the paintings serve as his laboratory and become the objects of his experiments. Through this engagement with unconventional materials, Polke ensured the works changed their appearance as the viewer moves around them. These magnificent and unique pieces can be seen in the large wall painting responding to variations in humidity, which Polke made for the German pavilion in the 1986 Venice Biennale, or the large mural painting changing with the temperature that he created for his Paris retrospective in 1988. Untitled comes at the height of his mastery of such techniques, and his use of silver compound means that the painting is mutable, shimmering in and out of visibility with great poetic resonance.
A photograph cannot effectively capture the effect of standing before Untitled. The artistic deity, Polke brings life to a painting by giving it the ability to respond to its environment, restoring its original, magical presence that some suggested had been lost with the advent of photography. The influential German critic Walter Benjamin in his 1936 essay 'The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction' suggested that paintings had lost their aura because photography permitted them to be reproduced, calling into question the originality and authenticity. However, with Polke's Untitled, this is no longer the case. What is particularly significant is Polke has done this using chemicals that form the foundation of the modern negative and print developing, and so has restored the aura of painting using techniques borrowed from photography. In this way, in a form of inter-media experimentation he has brilliantly managed to synthesize the media of painting, drawing and photography in a work brimming with innovation.