"Jedes Ding hat seinen Diener", sagt Dagmar Steffen und rückt das Buttermesserchen zurecht. by Sigmar Polke
Sigmar Polke, "Jedes Ding hat seinen Diener", sagt Dagmar Steffen und rückt das Buttermesserchen zurecht, 1996, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 1996, photo: Frank Kleinbach

Sigmar Polke: Music from an Unknown Source

5 Jul 2021
 - 
15 Aug 2021
​Window Project
E. Tatishvili 9
0108 Tbilisi, Georgia

In the gouaches of this exhibition, Sigmar Polke (1941-2010) makes the dripping and flowing of paint his theme, originating from the character of the watery gouaches. The controlled and uncontrolled 'allowing to happen' of physical phenomena played an important role for Polke. Over the unpredictable flow of paint, the artist lays a regular and predictable screen system as an antipole – something very characteristic of him. Moreover, he gives the pictures titles that sound absurd, which in turn expand what has been presented in them, thus adding a poetic note, and which are exemplary in terms of Polke's stance as an artist.

Since the early 1960s, Polke worked with the relationship of the reality as contained in a picture and reality itself, the relation between art and daily life. He often took a distanced ironical position, which enabled him to turn his attention – above and beyond issues of content – to the form and the material nature of painting. The exhibition 'Music from an Unknown Source' gives insight into an artistic oeuvre which has a singular position in the contemporary art scene of today and belongs among the most significant of the German postwar era.

For the second time within a short period ifa cooperates with the art space Window Project in Tbilisi. 40 works by Sigmar Polke can be seen, which already attracted great attention in advance.

Exhibitions worldwide

With over 20 touring exhibitions currently travelling across the globe and with its diverse event programmes on contemporary art, the ifa links the German art scene with internationally active cultural creators and forms cooperations and networks. The projects, many of which were developed in co-creation with local partners, cover the various disciplines of modern and contemporary fine arts – from current themes in architecture, photography and design to Bauhaus and monographic exhibitions such as Rosemarie Trockel or Wolfgang Tillmans. These projects generate local meeting platforms and allow international perspectives on topics of global relevance. The ifa also provides loan exhibits to interested museums.

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