Sigmar Polke

Sigmar Polke
Sigmar Polkewas a German painter and photographer...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth13 February 1941
CountryGermany
procedures interest
It's the procedures in and for themselves that interest me. The picture isn't really necessary.
art horrible people places word
People expect things from art that are horrible for us who make it! They put the things we make in these restrictive places called 'museums,' then don't want to hear another word from us.
interested people pictures seem understand useful
I've never been interested in philosophy, but some of Jung's ideas seem useful in helping people understand pictures and so forth.
mostly red
Light is a metaphoric thing. There is green light and red light. Then there is black light, which is mostly danger.
dots love
I love all dots. I am married to many of them. I want all dots to be happy. Dots are my brothers. I am a dot myself.
believer born conditions family home lost luck opportunity poor prove provide social suppose war
We were very poor and my family lost everything during the war - our home and our identity. But I'm a believer in luck and think the social conditions you're born into provide the opportunity for you to prove your luck. And I suppose I've been lucky.
came saw time west
When I came to the West, I saw many, many things for the first time. But I also saw the prosperity of the West critically. It wasn't really Heaven.
definition life mean
The conventional definition of reality, and the idea of 'normal life', mean nothing.
advertising agency both occupies operating painted picasso portrait properties
By making pictures, you learn the many different properties of photography. I use those properties differently than, say, an advertising agency would, but we're both operating in the same reality. A face painted by Picasso occupies the same reality as a portrait by Stieglitz.
Because I was traveling a lot during the '70s, the only thing I could do on the road was take photographs, so there wasn't much painting during those years.
art renaissance young
When I was young, I was interested in Renaissance art.
risk elements risk-taking
There has to be an element of risk-taking for me in my work.
photography art children
I began drawing as a very young child and had a grandfather who experimented with photography, so those things constituted my first exposure to art.
people trying painter
Picabia is a very old painter who some people try to connect me to, but I refuse such comparisons very well.