Sigmar Polke

Sigmar Polke was born in Oels, Germany, in 1941, and studied at the State Academy of Art in D sseldorf. He first achieved recognition in 1963 when he began working in a witty and irreverent style he termed "Capitalist Realism"--often considered a more complex and political cousin to Anglo-American Pop Art. He has continued to create innovative and aesthetically impressive works through the present day. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at such major museums as the Museum of...See more

Sigmar Polke was born in Oels, Germany, in 1941, and studied at the State Academy of Art in D sseldorf. He first achieved recognition in 1963 when he began working in a witty and irreverent style he termed "Capitalist Realism"--often considered a more complex and political cousin to Anglo-American Pop Art. He has continued to create innovative and aesthetically impressive works through the present day. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at such major museums as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the MusEe de l'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Brooklyn Museum; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Walker Arts Center; and, in 1999, at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. He has been the recipient of the Venice Biennale's Golden Lion, the Erasmus award, and the Carnegie award. He lives and works in Cologne, Germany. See less