Sigmar Polke: Daphne

This book »Daphne« conceived by Reiner Speck in collaboration with the artist provides a deep insight into Sigmar Polke’s workshop and into the subtly ironic work of one of the most important artists of our day.

This anthology of sources of visual inspiration and documents throw light on Polke’s creative process in twenty-three chapters of differing length featuring large-format photocopies with strongly diverging motifs, thereby revealing that undoubtedly unique method of picture genesis: the old and trusted sketchbook seems to have been superseded here by files of photocopied sheets which at some point or other suddenly accumulate into the motif of a large picture or smaller graphic cycles. The script of the work to be created at a later date begins at the photocopier and its drama is determined by the hand and the watchful eye of the artist. The printed dot, the resolution, the subject and speed all determine the apparently unpredictable and often impenetrable secret of a picture whose drafts are akin to the waste products of a copying machine.

Even if this is but a brief insight into Sigmar Polke’s ever secret files and archives it is still a significant one. The unique quality of this book is its tautological handling and reflection on the way it came into being—the original copies are reproduced, ordered and bound according to the same process in their original size. For the first time here we see an artist’s book with such an aura of authenticity that Walter Benjamin’s essay »Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit« requires re-reading on the basis of this product.

Sigmar Polke (1941–2010) was one ot the outstanding German artists in the 20th century. Together with Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg he founded 1963 the artist group Kapitalistischer Realismus (capitalistic realism). On the contrary to Gerhard Richter the work of Sigmar Polke was lifelong charterized from his bias to irony. With his thematic shifts and integration of surprising materials he is a precusor of generations of artists since the Postmodern era. Sigmar Polke was professor at the academy in Hamburg 1977–1991, participated at documenta 5 (1972), 6 (1977) and 7 (1982), in the same year his work was exhibited at the spectacular show ZEITGEIST in Berlin. 2002 he was honored with the Praemium Imperiale and get 2009 honory member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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