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Sigmar Polke
Untitled, 1990

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Untitled
Artist name
Sigmar Polke
Date created
1990
Classification
painting
Medium
acrylic and artificial resin on fabric
Dimensions
45 3/4 in. × 54 1/8 in. (116.21 cm × 137.48 cm)
Date acquired
1993
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Gift of Phyllis C. Wattis in memory of John Caldwell, Curator of Painting and Sculpture (1989-1993)
Copyright
© Estate of Sigmar Polke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/93.173.A-B
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Audio Stories

Why did Polke make two-sided paintings?

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transcripts

NARRATOR:  

There are two-sided works of art in the world, but most of them are not transparent. These paintings are one more example of Polke’s penchant for showing his hand—pointing out the artifice involved in art making—even as he seduces us with his virtuosic painting and allusive stories. 

 

GARY GARRELS:  

He’s interested in layering, he’s interested in transparency. 

 

NARRATOR:  

Curator Gary Garrels.  

 

GARRELS:  

He’s made double-sided paintings, using resins, where you can look through the painting from both sides. And from one side, you’ll just see ghosts or echoes of an image behind. You turn around and it might have a totally different image, and you’ll see echoes of the painting on the other side. Polke really treats all of his works like a palimpsest. And so it’s a question of: To what degree can we discern a legible image? What’s on the surface, reflected or influenced by what came before? In a certain way, in our minds, any understanding of the present is embedded with meanings from the past.  

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Other Works by Sigmar Polke

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