Lot Essay
Having abandoned painting for nearly a decade, Polke's return to the medium in the early 1980s was accompanied by a thorough re-examination of the content of his images, and an extraordinary resourcefulness in the use of materials. Polke frequently borrows and reworks images from seemingly incompatible sources, using disparate materials such as blankets, commercially printed fabrics, glass, scrim, resins and minerals. He is interested in the chance possibility not only of mixing various images, but also of juxtaposing the diverse materials with which he paints them. The Untitled work from 1985 exemplifies the artist's main concerns during this period. Having experimented with a wide variety of substances and supports, Polke was now able to extract new meanings from borrowed images which he juxtaposed and often overlayed.
The present work is one of Polke's most successful paintings in which he uses patterned fabrics instead of canvas. The cloth is employed as an integral part of the work; the surface itself, the white on red polka-dots on the left and the nursery-room toys on the right, appears random but at the same time extremely meaningful. The choice of patterns highlights Polke's preference for decorative and ornamental structures. At the same time, the polka-dot pattern of the left side of the painting seems to be making reference to the artist's frequent use of Benday dots used in the commercial printing of photographic images. On the other hand, it might also be a reference to himself, a play on words which transforms his signature style into his signature - the polka-dots become Polke-dots.
Influenced by American Pop Art, Polke often plays with conventional notions of authorship and meaning in art. This Untitled painting clearly alludes to the popular comic strip figures of Dagwood and Daisy. The husband, stereotypically reading a newspaper, eavesdrops as his wife, a "Mauerblümchen" or wallflower so to speak, chatters away on the telephone. The children's nursery imagery completes the family portrait by refering to the child.
At the same time, the broad expanse of white painted across the canvas anchors the figures in space, providing a neutral background against which they can be clearly read. This gestural sweep of paint across the centre of the canvas divides the work horizontally. Loose drips of paint and a large X crossing out the image of the daisy seem to refer to the battle between the gestural painting of the Abstract Expressionists and the comic figuration of Pop Art. Polke pokes fun at the seriousness of such a debate by playfully signing the painting "S. Polek". Though this jokey misspelling of his name may seem to affiliate him with the king of the drip himself, for Polke, neither trend has actually won the battle; on the contrary, the two styles continue to coexist in harmony in many of the artist's paintings and drawings to the present day.
The present work is one of Polke's most successful paintings in which he uses patterned fabrics instead of canvas. The cloth is employed as an integral part of the work; the surface itself, the white on red polka-dots on the left and the nursery-room toys on the right, appears random but at the same time extremely meaningful. The choice of patterns highlights Polke's preference for decorative and ornamental structures. At the same time, the polka-dot pattern of the left side of the painting seems to be making reference to the artist's frequent use of Benday dots used in the commercial printing of photographic images. On the other hand, it might also be a reference to himself, a play on words which transforms his signature style into his signature - the polka-dots become Polke-dots.
Influenced by American Pop Art, Polke often plays with conventional notions of authorship and meaning in art. This Untitled painting clearly alludes to the popular comic strip figures of Dagwood and Daisy. The husband, stereotypically reading a newspaper, eavesdrops as his wife, a "Mauerblümchen" or wallflower so to speak, chatters away on the telephone. The children's nursery imagery completes the family portrait by refering to the child.
At the same time, the broad expanse of white painted across the canvas anchors the figures in space, providing a neutral background against which they can be clearly read. This gestural sweep of paint across the centre of the canvas divides the work horizontally. Loose drips of paint and a large X crossing out the image of the daisy seem to refer to the battle between the gestural painting of the Abstract Expressionists and the comic figuration of Pop Art. Polke pokes fun at the seriousness of such a debate by playfully signing the painting "S. Polek". Though this jokey misspelling of his name may seem to affiliate him with the king of the drip himself, for Polke, neither trend has actually won the battle; on the contrary, the two styles continue to coexist in harmony in many of the artist's paintings and drawings to the present day.