Sigmar Polke

Micheline and Claude Renard, Paris (acquired directly from the artist)
Christie's, London, February 9, 2006, Lot 147
Acquired by the present owner from the above

This work is in excellent condition overall. The pigment surface appears fresh and stable. The sheet is hinged at regular intervals and there weight of this large sheet does create some soft undulations related to the hinges. The work is framed under Plexiglas in a metal strip frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Embodying Sigmar Polke's post-war, Modernist view of the world as an unpredictable place full of intrigue and permeated with irony, Untitled from 1999 is a brilliant abstraction that constructs Landscape painting into mere illusion - an unrecognizable motif that simultaneously exemplifies the epic grandeur of the genre through heightened abstraction.  In a thrilling marriage of mark-making, use of color and mastery of materials, the present work creates a sense of serene chaos – constituted by layer upon layer of blues, whites and grays that is compositionally sophisticated and complex.  The impressive and monumental size of the paper sheet instills a strength and presence to Untitled, 1999 which is equally impactful as that of Polke's most successful paintings.  Sean Rainbird deftly explains Polke's practice as "elusive as he is himself.  [Polke] has constructed a persona that plays with the concepts of inspiration and originality.  Within this cult of creativity, he is an elfin presence, a shrouded mystic, a magician projecting illusions." (Exh. Cat., Liverpool, Tate Gallery, Sigmar Polke: Join the Dots, 1995, p. 9).

Sigmar Polke's art has consistently retained an acute sense of joyous adventure, which is the hallmark of his canon.  It can be seen throughout the decades of his oeuvre in masterpieces that deliberate upon the subject of idealized beauty which tackle the depiction of several layers of consciousness at the same time.  As John Caldwell has noted, "What Polke has done is to produce paintings that seem to look back at us by changing as we look at them, and thus allow them to have the very aura of a work of art that [the German critic Walter] Benjamin saw as inevitably vanishing in the modern world.  Polke's alchemical experiments can thus be seen as an effort to return art to the ceremonial and ritualistic basis that Benjamin saw as lost and to restore it to its previous powers and functions." (Exh. Cat., San Francisco, Museum of Modern Art (and traveling), Sigmar Polke, 1990, p. 13).  Polke's extensive graphic output distilled and reconstructed over the past five decades and was culminated in the perfect economy of means to profoundly communicate.