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Lot Essay
‘The processes are what interest me. The picture is not really necessary. The unforeseeable is what turns out to be interesting’ (S. Polke, quoted in E. Klein, Sigmar Polke: Fabproben-Materialversuche-Probierbilder aus den 1973-86, exh. cat., Galerie Klein, Cologne, 1999).
Rich, varied textures of paint play upon a piece of fabric, the swathes of yellow, white and black paint work in contrast to the ordered repetition of the patterned material in the present piece. Schlafanzug mit Brille is an example of Polke’s Fabric Paintings, in which he employed various commercially-produced textiles, delighting in their triviality and connection to everyday life, as background patterns for painterly gestures and motifs drawn from mainstream modernism, particularly the work of the Abstract Expressionists. However, if we inspect the work closer, we see that not all of these forms are wholly abstract, and it becomes clear that Polke has woven an intricate and subtle narrative into the surface of his piece.
On the right hand side of the work, Polke works with the pattern to produce a yellow, honey-comb structure by painting freehand against the rigid pattern of the fabric. Overlapping this yellow pattern, we see a build-up of black paint in two rings, which could represent the glasses mentioned in the title. Polke encourages the viewer to look through the glasses, and in a thin layer of white paint, he has created what could be a sleeping figure, the peaceful sleep evoked by the whimsical application of the pure colour. The rigid, repeating forms of the pattern of the fabric can still be seen through the white paint, adding a surreal dimension to the image that has been drawn – it appears almost as a ghost-like figure. This is contrasted against the nearly three-dimensional application of black paint that has been formed into peaks and extends outwards from the fabric to make up the glasses. If the viewer looks closely enough, they can traverse through the shape of the glasses into this dream-like space, where we see an interplay of pattern and free form.
By combining these different techniques and unexpected materials to create his own story, Polke aims to expose the very structures of image-making, thus prompting the viewer to question traditional methods of evaluating art. Indeed, by including a depiction of glasses into the work and referring to this in the title, the artist explores the modern processes of looking and interpreting. The work has an undeniably painterly quality that enriches the best of the artist’s pieces, and even though a story is suggested, Schlafanzug mit Brille ultimately has an indefinable nature, achieved through its polymorphous picture plane and subtle use of figurative form.
Rich, varied textures of paint play upon a piece of fabric, the swathes of yellow, white and black paint work in contrast to the ordered repetition of the patterned material in the present piece. Schlafanzug mit Brille is an example of Polke’s Fabric Paintings, in which he employed various commercially-produced textiles, delighting in their triviality and connection to everyday life, as background patterns for painterly gestures and motifs drawn from mainstream modernism, particularly the work of the Abstract Expressionists. However, if we inspect the work closer, we see that not all of these forms are wholly abstract, and it becomes clear that Polke has woven an intricate and subtle narrative into the surface of his piece.
On the right hand side of the work, Polke works with the pattern to produce a yellow, honey-comb structure by painting freehand against the rigid pattern of the fabric. Overlapping this yellow pattern, we see a build-up of black paint in two rings, which could represent the glasses mentioned in the title. Polke encourages the viewer to look through the glasses, and in a thin layer of white paint, he has created what could be a sleeping figure, the peaceful sleep evoked by the whimsical application of the pure colour. The rigid, repeating forms of the pattern of the fabric can still be seen through the white paint, adding a surreal dimension to the image that has been drawn – it appears almost as a ghost-like figure. This is contrasted against the nearly three-dimensional application of black paint that has been formed into peaks and extends outwards from the fabric to make up the glasses. If the viewer looks closely enough, they can traverse through the shape of the glasses into this dream-like space, where we see an interplay of pattern and free form.
By combining these different techniques and unexpected materials to create his own story, Polke aims to expose the very structures of image-making, thus prompting the viewer to question traditional methods of evaluating art. Indeed, by including a depiction of glasses into the work and referring to this in the title, the artist explores the modern processes of looking and interpreting. The work has an undeniably painterly quality that enriches the best of the artist’s pieces, and even though a story is suggested, Schlafanzug mit Brille ultimately has an indefinable nature, achieved through its polymorphous picture plane and subtle use of figurative form.