Sale: 500 / Evening Sale, July 17. 2020 in Munich Lot 249

 

249
Sigmar Polke
Übermalung eines Bildes Winterlandschaft, 1989.
10 sheets Black and white photographs, solarized
Estimate:
€ 80,000 / $ 86,400
Sold:
€ 86,250 / $ 93,150

(incl. surcharge)
Übermalung eines Bildes Winterlandschaft. 1989.
10 sheets Black and white photographs, solarized.
All sheets signed and dated, one titled, inscribed "10 Stück" and with the copyright blindstamp "sigmar polke photography". Each of unique character owing to the individual treatment in the darkroom. On photo paper. 50.7 x 60.7 cm (19.9 x 23.8 in), the full sheet.
[EH].
• Polke, the adventurous alchemist in the darkroom
• Polke's photographs are shot improperly, they are deliberately blurred and overexposed
• Polke probes the medium's limits with photo-chemical experiments
• Curerrently Polke's photography sees a renaissance: Galerie Max Hetzler in Berlin showed a comprehensive exhibition between March and May this year
.

PROVENANCE: Berlin Projects, Berlin.
Private Collection Great Britain (aquired 2001 from above).

EXHIBITION: Sigmar Polke Fotografien, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, February 11 - March 25, 1990, cat. no. 163 a-l (different copy, 12 sheets).

LITERATURE: Hans Danuser/Bettina Gockel (editor), Neuerfindung der Fotografie: Hans Danuser - Gespräche, Materialien, Analysen, Berlin 2014, p. 124, illu. 9 c (different copy, 6 sheets).
"The cipher used is not one of agreement, but it arises naturally from the reality it conceals. So it is useless to search which side of symbolism is misleading. Everything is misleading and revealing at the same time."
Michel Butor, Die Alchemie und ihre Sprache.

Polke experiments in his photographs with various chemical substances and their impact on the development process, thus attaining new aesthetic possibilities. Our series of ten photographs delivers insight into his activities in the photo lab, into the various options that Polke found through experimenting. This series of a "Übermalung eines Bildes Winterlandschaft" (Overpainted Winter Landscape) is a wonderful document of how the artist indulges in the metamorphic natures of photography. And that is in duplicate, as these chemically altered photographs show the transition of a picture through overpainting. [EH]



249
Sigmar Polke
Übermalung eines Bildes Winterlandschaft, 1989.
10 sheets Black and white photographs, solarized
Estimate:
€ 80,000 / $ 86,400
Sold:
€ 86,250 / $ 93,150

(incl. surcharge)