Sigmar Polke - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale London Monday, June 25, 2018 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Erhard Klein Gallery, Bonn
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Catalogue Essay

    We are most grateful to Mr. Michael Trier for his assistance.

    'Nothing is so effective as Raster pictures when it comes to destroying the naive acceptance of technical pictures as depicting 'things from the world on a flat surface.' - Sigmar Polke

    Oscillating between a painterly, metallic ground and a precise arrangement of Raster dots, the present work is exemplary of Sigmar Polke’s play with optical effects. Synthesising the artist’s experimentations with alchemy and his Raster technique, the iridescent surface of the composition fluctuates under light and motion. The variegated paint application of the background draws the viewer's gaze past the image registered in Raster dots.

    A trained stained glass worker, Polke’s preoccupation with the effects of light, transparency and translucency infiltrate his prolific artistic output. Exemplary of this concern, the luminous pearlescent ground of the present work gives the painting a fluid quality. Caught between the fore-and back-ground, the viewer is entwined with Polke’s hallucinatory universe. The painterly drips bleed through from beneath the artist’s precise intervention, through his alchemic experiments Polke creates a mesmerizingly hallucinatory portrait and challenges the truth of imagery.

207

Ohne Titel (Fenster)

signed and dated 'Sigmar Polke '99' lower right
acrylic on paper
99.4 x 69.9 cm (39 1/8 x 27 1/2 in.)
Executed in 1999, this work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the Estate of Sigmar Polke and registered under number 12/00308.

Estimate
£100,000 - 150,000 

Sold for £87,500

Contact Specialist
Tamila Kerimova
Specialist, Head of Day Sale
+ 44 20 7318 4065
tkerimova@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale

London Auction 26 June 2018