SIGMAR POLKE
2011-11-07In 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.
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.
Opposite – Girlfriends II, 1967
Exhibition runs through to January 29th, 2012
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand
Av.Paulista 1578
São Paulo
SP
Brasil
