Polke on Drawing

Sigmar Polke has said he relies on drawing "to fix an idea."


"Mostly drawings are things I make for myself — I do them in sketchbooks... They are mental experiments — private inner thoughts when I'm not sure what will come out." 

"Why Can't I Stop Smoking?" 1964

66 15/16" x 47 7/16", dispersion and charcoal on canvas

These last two images are very large works on paper (gouache and acrylic) that Polke created during the 1970s, when he was a part of a satiric movement in Germany called "Capitalist Realism." Many of these drawings are like overlapped transparencies on spot color fields, and are a commentary on consumerism, politics in postwar Europe, and conventions in artmaking (because art is always about art, but I repeat myself). David Salle capitalized on this technique in many of his classic paintings:

Sigmar Polke

"Untitled: 2001-06," Artificial resin on  polyester fiber, 53 3/4 x 46 inches

"An artist often identified with the willful opacity of American postmodernists like David Salle and Julian Schnabel." - Art in America on Sigmar Polke, April 1999

John Baldessari once referred to German artist Sigmar Polke as an "artist's artist," because of Polke's instigation in so many postmodern miracles of art. Said Baldessari, "Any one move can provide a career for a lesser artist." Born in 1941, Polke's visual language is full of references to the news, both current and past; popular culture; science, art history (because all art is about making art) and the malleable fable, as well as his mavericky use of materials.

h: 86.6 x w: 181.1 in acrylic on fabric, 1983 

But what about Polke's drawings? We'll take a closer look tomorrow.