Untitled
Sigmar Polke
German, 1941–2010
c. 1973
A gelatin silver print with hand-applied color in which Sigmar Polke scrawls crude, neon marks over a domestic portrait to undermine the photograph’s apparent truth and turn the snapshot into a site of playful, destabilizing intervention.
What strikes you is the discord between the soft black-and-white room and the violently childish pink-and-blue drawing that replaces the sitter’s face together with lurid yellow strokes on the body, making the familiar scene suddenly uncanny and cartoonish.
This work exemplifies Polke’s 1970s experiments that blurred photography and painting, advancing mixed-media approaches, appropriation of everyday images, and a wry critique of conventional representation.
Medium
Gelatin silver print, with applied color
Dimensions
6 15/16 × 5" (17.6 × 12.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Acquired through the generosity of Edgar Wachenheim III and Ronald S. Lauder
Accession
894.2011
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
