HYLAND
There is a spectral quality to nearly every medium
Polke touched, nowhere so evident as in his Untitled
(Rorschach), c. 1999, in vividly colored ink—yellow,
orange, purple, magenta—in a bound notebook. A
Rorschach, as we know, is a test of the psyche and
its values, traditionally in black on white. Again, Polke
flouts all norms, imbuing this probe for normality with
the unexpected, with hallucinatory color that defies
interpretation. It is all aura.
For an artist who so painstakingly deconstructed the
myth of the lone genius artist, Sigmar Polke was one.
His works shimmer with individuality, originality and
spirit, even as they upset the apple cart of modernism.
Joseph Beuys famously said "Everybody is an artist."
Perhaps it is true, but Polke stands apart, and now
above. H
Daphne (ΔΑΦΝΗ), c. 2004, Gelatin silver print;
© 2014 Estate of Sigmar Polke/ Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Cover: Modern Art (Moderne Kunst)
c. 1968, Gelatin silver print; © 2014 Estate
of Sigmar Polke/ Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963-2010
at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC
April 19, 2014–August 03, 2014
