One of the most important German artists of the second half of the twentieth century, Sigmar Polke (Sigmar Polke), died from cancer. He was 69 years. This was reported by the representatives of the New York gallery artist Michael Werner.

In 1963 Polke, along with Gerhard Richter (Gerhard Richter) and Conrad Lyugom (Konrad Lueg) founded a movement called "capitalist realism . Their group was one of the first influential association of contemporary artists that emerged in postwar Germany. Being a generation younger than Joseph Beuys (Joseph Beuys), members of the movement preferred to his radical political activism creation of works which, ironically, to display various phenomena of everyday life. In this regard, many critics said the proximity of their creativity of American Pop Art.

Polke was born in East Germany in 1941. In 1953 his family fled to the West. At first they lived in West Berlin, then moved to Düsseldorf. It was in this city hosted the first exhibition of "capitalist realist". Conrad Lyug, later changed his name to Fisher, in 1967 opened a gallery in Düsseldorf, which gained legendary status in the avant-garde environment. Fisher was one of the most ardent supporters of the arts Polke.

began his creative journey from painting on glass, in 1961, Polke entered the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, which is visited by up to 1967. He dropped out, even though success on the art scene. Like its New York counterpart Roy Lichtenstein (Roy Lichtenstein), the artist was very interested in advertising. He often introduces into his painting and graphic arts halftone dots, simulating the technique of print advertising images in magazines and newspapers.

Polke is known mostly through his paintings, but he created the conceptual and textual work, such as "Slogans V» (1967). This work consists entirely of mathematical examples, and the decision is incorrect: "1 1 = 3". According to art historian Benjamin Buchloe (Benjamin Buchloh), «allegorical sarcastic humor" of such works was aimed at "a historic failure of abstract art and the absurd pathos, which is now permeated all his radicalism».

Later, Polke, however, departed from this irony: in the past decade, he has actively producing luxury expressive paintings and prints, boldly combining figurative and abstract. In 2007, Carol Vogel of the newspaper The New York Times said that in creating his works the painter uses arsenic, lavender oil, cosmic dust, gold, vermilion and purple paint. "Violet was considered a mysterious color even in the Renaissance, - says gallery owner Gene VeneKlasen (Gene VeneKlasen). - Sigmar always been interested in this." At its last exhibition (Michael Werner, 2009) the artist has shown the intricate pattern of a series of "lenses" made with acrylic gel on the fabric.

influential critic Robert Smith (Roberta Smith) said: "It seems it takes only one thing, namely, a thorough investigation of all possibilities of beautiful things - which may be methods of making art, what materials ... His work polymorphically and diabolically ingenious. The original word was used perverse , which we most often translated as "perverted", but in English, this definition can act without negative connotations. It is often used by the author of articles about creativity Polke, admiring his bold technical experiments, which, however, does not conceal a deep respect for the artist in the history of painting. So, perverse called it a critic Michael Kimmelman (Michael Kimmelman): «Painting - this is the oldest known to mankind magic tricks. And Sigmar Polke - one of the greatest magicians, master of metamorphoses, devilishly inventive and good-crazy ».

material prepared Yulia Maksimova, AI

Source: artinfo.com , artinvestment.ru