Figure with Hand (Dizzy...) (Figur mit Hand (Es schwindelt...))

Sigmar Polke

1973

A photolithograph printed on imitation snakeskin paper that layers a shadowy, oversized hand and a tiny, dancing figure against a deep cobalt field to evoke dizziness and uncertain scale.

You first notice the intense, reptile‑like blue texture filling the sheet, then a darker square where a silhouetted hand reaches toward a minuscule acrobat while faint, blurred text seeps through, creating a cinematic, disorienting effect.

From 1973, this work illustrates Sigmar Polke’s use of photographic processes and unconventional supports to blur the line between mechanical reproduction and painting, challenging perception and the authority of images in postwar art.

Palette

Art Terms

Lithography Print Photography Figurative Figure/ground relationship Pictorial space Appropriation

Exhibitions

Drawing in Austria and Germany

1985

The Expressionist Idiom

1985

Naked/Nude: Contemporary Prints

1986

German Drawing: The Expressionists

1974