SIGMAR POLKE - Capitalist Realism and other illustrated histories

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SIGMAR POLKE – Capitalist Realism and other illustrated histories

An exhibition of 220 graphic works and objects from the Dr. Axel Ciesielski colllection

+ the series Day by Day, 25 works in mixed media (drawings, prints, collages) from another private German collection.

From Friday, October 28, 2011 to Sunday, January 29, 2012, at MASP.

Opening: October 27, Thursday, 7:30 p.m.

Curators: Tereza Arruda, Teixeira Coelho (MASP)

Courtesy: The Estate of Sigmar Polke, AUTVIS 2011

MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand

Av.Paulista, 1578

São Paulo SP Brasil

www.masp.art.br

Sigmar Polke, Girlfriends II, 1967

Offset litho, 47.9 x 60.8 cm

Photo: Werner Baumann, Höhr-Grenzhausen

Courtesy: Galerie Christian Lethert, Cologne

FOR THE FIRST TIME OUTSIDE GERMANY, SIGMAR POLKE’S COMPLETE GRAPHIC WORKS (EDITION PRINTS) AT MASP

After organizing the special and prized exhibition German Contemporary Painting: If not now and inaugurating the international tour of Places, Strange and Quiet, a photo exhibition by Wim Wenders, MASP creates and produces Sigmar Polke – Capitalist Realism and other illustrated histories, with the complete series of graphic works (edition prints, 1963-2009) and other objects by the German visual artist, plus the series Day by Day (mixed media) which was a thrill in the 13th São Paulo Art Biennial in 1975, when Polke was awarded the grand prize for painting.

In the first international exhibition of the German artist Sigmar Polke after his death in June, 2010, at the age of 69, MASP presents the complete series of graphic works (edition prints) created by this visual artist between 1963 and 2009. On the whole, more than 220 pieces lent by the collectionist Axel Ciesielski plus the series Day by Day with 25 works in mixed media created by Polke for the International Art Biennial of São Paulo in 1975, which were lent to this exhibition by another private German collection. After the show German Contemporary Painting: If not now and Places, Strange and Quiet, with photos by Wim Wenders, both brought to São Paulo last year, the exhibition SIGMAR POLKE – Capitalist Realism and other illustrated histories makes MASP stand out in the international scene of the contemporary art. Curated by Tereza Arruda with the collaboration of Teixeira Coelho, this show may be seen from October 28 to January 29, 2012.

Considered one of the most significant artists of post-war Europe, Polke was born in 1941 in Silesia – a region incorporated by Eastern Germany in 1949 and shared today by Poland, Czech Republic and Germany. When he was 12 years old he moved, along with his family, to the then Western Germany and at 20 he enrolls at the Art Academy of Düsseldorf. In 1963, he becomes known when organizing, with his class-mates Gerhard Richter and Konrad Fischer (then Konrad Lueg), the performance (and later the movement) called Capitalist Realism, so named in order to make a satire of the Socialist Realism, the official aesthetic and artistic doctrine of the Soviet Union, and also to criticize the market driven art world in Western capitalism.

In the 70s his work focuses mainly on photographic production and manipulation, amid his many world travels. In 1975, he becomes the great star of the 13th São Paulo Art Biennial that awards him the grand prize of painting and where he presents the series Day by Day (mixed media), which MASP now presents in its original format for the first time. In the 80s, he experiments with different kinds of paints, chemicals and solvents and in 1986 he receives the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennial for his installation Athanor, with a paint developed by him based on pigments that reacted to the local light and dampness by changing color. The prize reinforced his name as one of the most important German artist, among Richter, Joseph Beuys, Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer.

Above all, Sigmar Polke was a free and iconoclast spirit. The fact that his work cannot be included in any specific school or style is, per se, the best definition of his work.

Sigmar Polke, The Washing of the rulers, 1972

One of seven black and white photographs

30.5 x 40.5 cm

Photo: Werner Baumann, Höhr-Grenzhausen

Courtesy: Galerie Christian Lethert, Cologne

Sigmar Polke, the freedom to want by Teixeira Coelho, curator of MASP. Extracts:

(...)

When words lack to seize something, to explain something even if only to oneself, when one is not able to really understand, vague terms come to the rescue: Polke was called a pop artist, of the pop version that came from beyond the Iron Curtain or the Berlin Wall. To say this is to say too little, nothing actually. There are more fitting expressions for Polke. In 2004, the Tate Modern, London, presented a comprehensive exhibition of his work. This exhibition came under a title that expressed well what would be seen: History of Everything. The title of the exhibition was: Sigmar Polke: History of Everything. What Polke did was precisely that, a history of everything. His art is an art of the history of everything. History is, history still is the main character and one of the central drives of the work of many German artists, Gerhard Richter, Anselm Keefer and Neo Rauch, to name just a few among the most relevant (with some others who got unaware in the net of History). But in fact Polke, even more than the others, really composed, with his varied work in painting, gouache, print, photos and films, a explicit history of everything. A history from soccer to politics, passing by the Olympic Games and contemporary everyday scenes. Of Germany and the world.

(...)

People say that an artist should have a say about the world so that whatever he or she says will add to the world. What Polke has to say about the world is a lot. It is everything, almost everything, everything possible. But even if he says important things about the world, which he does, what is even more relevant is the way he says it – and he says it with plenty of freedom, the freedom to want, the same freedom Dante considers, in his Comedy, to be the most important for men, the freedom that makes men the equals of God. whatever he says of relevant about the world, when he says it about art it is about the mode of liberty, the mode of liberty to wish. That is what can be identified in Polke when one can see him among his peers: the will of freedom to want, something very difficult to exercise, very hard even to imagine, a freedom that in art is divine.

Sigmar Polke, Day by Day, 1975

Collage, 62x43cm

Photo: Werner Baumann, Höhr-Grenzhausen

Courtesy: Galerie Christian Lethert, Cologne

Capitalist realism and other illustrated histories, by Tereza Arruda, curator. Extract:

(...)

Polke’s alchemy was made up by intuition, planning and chance, besides, of course, every kind of materiality that came accross his path. Experimental curiosity was always a part of his life. It is due to this detachment and indefatigable laboratorial disposition that we have works so rich in diversity in the show we present now at MASP. The path goes through different techniques of printing, collage, assemblage, drawing, photography, painting on paper, newspaper, plastic sheets, metalic material, among others. It is worth stressing that for Sigmar Polke his production of works on paper stands at the same level with his painting, not being a secondary or occasional production. The artist dedicated himself continuously to this technique, open to the research of the new materials that would appear in the market during his lifetime.