Sigmar Polke

Since 1967, Sigmar Polke had created about 150 editions -- a broad range of works that by turns paraphrase and experiment with his idiosyncratic oeuvre. This publication, which collects all of his editions together for the first time, is therefore not merely an afterthought -- instead it provides a direct, central approach to the artist's work Polke's use of offset printing in his early works can be considered revolutionary: this technique was used by few of the artist's contemporaries and was not acceptable or canonical until much later on. What's more, in his editions for the 'Hamburger Griffelkunst' in 1973, Polke tried his hand at working with velour-finished paper, a material which repeatedly triggered the printer press's non-stop setting These works, expressions of the artist's love of experimentation, exploded the boundaries of graphic art. Compared to the more rarefied space of his paintings, these editions, largely conceived with communication in mind, engage the viewer in an exciting dialogue with one of the finest artists of the past fifty years.