Alibis: Sigmar Polke – Retrospektive

The MoMA in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne collaborated on a spectacular exhibition project featuring some 300 works – the first comprehensive retrospective of Sigmar Polke (1941 – 2010), one of the most renowned and influential artists of the post-war generation. The Federal Cultural Foundation and the Cultural Foundation of German States funded the exhibition in Cologne (Museum Ludwig, 14 March – 5 July 2015), which was curated by Philipp Kaiser and Barbara Engelbach.

Sigmar Polke gained international fame as an artist during his lifetime. However, he spent 50 years of his life in Rhineland where he decisively influenced the internationally oriented Rhenish art scene and frequently provoked the art-loving public. Polke was a keen observer of contemporary events in West Germany and reflected on German history like no other. The exhibition presented Polke’s enormous skepticism toward all social, political and artistic traditions in the context of German history and the transformation of the country in the post-war period. Therefore, such an extensive exhibition of Polke’s work in Germany was certainly most welcome.

Although Polke reaped international acclaim with his paintings, this exhibition presented a widely diverse range of works in other media, such as photography, films, installations, graphic art, sculptures, editions and several pieces which have never been publicly displayed before. In particular, his works from the 1970s have been neglected and have only received limited attention.

Consequently, the exhibition at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne highlighted Polke’s works of that decade so as to place them in a new context with his early and late works. In this joint exhibition with the museums in New York and London, the Museum Ludwig accentuated its own exhibition with works from its collection and loans from Hamburg and Cologne. This also pertained to Polke’s cinematic works, in particular several films which Polke showed at the Hamburg Kunsthalle just a year before he passed away. As of the mid-1960s, the film camera played an integral role in his artistic work until his death. The films anticipated and even inspired artistic solutions in other media. He cinematically adapted photographic, printing and painting processes and tested them using the new media. For Polke, film was a suitable medium for conveying the dichotomous structure of his work which comprises social criticism and the autonomy of the image.

The exhibition “Alibis: Sigmar Polke – Retrospective” at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne was one of several projects which the Federal Cultural Foundation and the Cultural Foundation of German States are collaboratively funding. The Federal Cultural Foundation allocated 300,000 euros to fund the project and the Cultural Foundation of German States provided an additional 100,000 euros.