Sigmar Polke Untitled 1982 Gouache on paper... Lot 51

Sigmar Polke Untitled 1982 Gouache on paper 100 x 70 cm. Signed and dated 'S.Polke 28 82' - With studio and slight signs of age. Provenance Galerie Marie-Louise Wirth, Zurich (with label on the reverse); Hauswedell & Nolte, Hamburg, 06.06.1996, Lot 346; Private collection, Rhineland-Palatinate. "Polke's drawing style is an eternal wonder and mystery to me. Not enough has been said about what a completely extraordinary draftsman he was. One of the most important questions he posed was: how do you get out of the habit of artful drawing and still draw? [...] You can think of comics, of motifs from the media and caricatures, but none of that prevails. That is what makes the drawings so good," is Benjamin Buchloh's verdict on Sigmar Polke's graphic works (in: Alibis. Sigmar Polke 1963-2010, Ausst.Kat. Museum Ludwig, Cologne 2015, p.211). From the beginning of the 1980s, figurative art in Germany gains more and more importance, Polke moves at this time in the opposite direction - towards an increased abstraction. His drawings, created during this period, unite both poles. Strongly colored, gestural brushstrokes overlap with an inexhaustibly rich figurative repertoire that draws on the flood of images from the modern world. Motifs from advertising, magazines, comics, and book illustrations combine on large-format sheets of paper to form imaginative, often satirical-humorous pictorial collages. The outstanding drawing offered here is accentuated by lively horizontal layers of strokes. Still life-like nature motifs together with the depictions of a portrait photograph and an antique bust enter into an arrangement that is obviously indebted to art history.