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Lot Essay
With the present work, Polke transforms an intimate image of childhood into one of stunning monumentality. The work induces a curious atmosphere of sacred awe, with the central image of the baby in its crib thrust forward in all its poignancy. Furthermore, the printed fabric support, a common tablecloth, situates the imagery in the domestic sphere, while the expressionist splashes of paint between this and the silkscreened image locate the work within contemporary art history beginning with Jackson Pollock. Central to Polke's art is his use of paradox which challenges any single or simple narration of his images, which often fluctuate between figuration and abstraction.
In the modern era - what Walter Benjamin famously defined as "the age of mechanical reproduction" - where information and images of all kinds are increasingly at our fingertips, Polke realised that we are as much entrapped by the new technologies as we are liberated by them. By appropriating images and techniques that are evidently borrowed or second-hand and by dislocating them from the environments in which they are normally found, Polke seeks to give them a new resonance - something other than that which they were originally intended for - and by doing so liberate not just them from the categories of meaning in which they are traditionally placed, but also our own perception. Through Polke's quintessential use of benday dots, a reference is made to the post-industrial world of mass-media. However, the benday dot, existing as a symbol for the cold, objective world of mass-production, stands here in a position of contradiction on two levels. First of all the fact that Polke has used an everyday tablecloth conveys a feeling of domesticity and intimacy. Here, with a touch of tongue-in-cheek, Polke demonstrates how the painter's suppport belongs as much to this world as to the domain of the artist. On a second level, the choice of subject matter (an innocent child at play) also contradicts the industrial implications of the benday dots. The traditional heirarchies of represented image, medium and support, are also eliminated in Polke's inclusion of the support as representative of the ideology behind the work. In this way, the artist fuses the low art of the mass-produced, benday dot image with the high art created by the artist.
In the modern era - what Walter Benjamin famously defined as "the age of mechanical reproduction" - where information and images of all kinds are increasingly at our fingertips, Polke realised that we are as much entrapped by the new technologies as we are liberated by them. By appropriating images and techniques that are evidently borrowed or second-hand and by dislocating them from the environments in which they are normally found, Polke seeks to give them a new resonance - something other than that which they were originally intended for - and by doing so liberate not just them from the categories of meaning in which they are traditionally placed, but also our own perception. Through Polke's quintessential use of benday dots, a reference is made to the post-industrial world of mass-media. However, the benday dot, existing as a symbol for the cold, objective world of mass-production, stands here in a position of contradiction on two levels. First of all the fact that Polke has used an everyday tablecloth conveys a feeling of domesticity and intimacy. Here, with a touch of tongue-in-cheek, Polke demonstrates how the painter's suppport belongs as much to this world as to the domain of the artist. On a second level, the choice of subject matter (an innocent child at play) also contradicts the industrial implications of the benday dots. The traditional heirarchies of represented image, medium and support, are also eliminated in Polke's inclusion of the support as representative of the ideology behind the work. In this way, the artist fuses the low art of the mass-produced, benday dot image with the high art created by the artist.