Bird’s Nest headdress with Swarovski gemstones, Widows of Culloden, A/W 2006–07. Philip Treacy and Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen. Model: Snejana Onopka, Image: Courtesy Swarovski Archive
Watchtower’ (1984). Estate of Sigmar Polke/ ARS/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Police Pig, 1986
Seeing Things as They Are, 1991
Salamander Stone, 1997
Untitled (Rorschach) (Ohne Titel (Rorschach)), c. 1999 Colored ink in bound notebook, 192 pages each: 11 5/8 x 8 1/16? (29.5 x 20.5 cm) Private Collection Photo: Alistair Overbruck
Season’s Hottest Trends, 2003
The Illusionist, 2007. All photographs: The Estate of Sigmar Polke/DACS/VG Bild-Kunst
“Sigmar Polca wz wn v ɖ most inseṣ̌bli xperimntl ātists v ɖ twentịʈ senčri.
Ɖs retṛspctv z ɖ frst t brñ tgɖr ɖ unyžli brwd renj v mīdia h wrct wɖ jrñ hiz fîv-deced c̣rir – nt onli pêntñ, drōñ, ftogṛfi, film n sculpčr, bt olso nôtbcs, slîdpṛjẋnz n fôtocopiz. H wrct in of-ɖ-wōl mtirı̣lz renjñ fṛm mītiordust t gold, bublráp, snêljūs, ptetoz, st n īvn yrenı̣m, ol ɖ ẇl rzistñ īzi caṭġrîzešn.
Polca’s rlentḷsli invntv wrcs renj in sîz fṛm ɖ intiṃsi v a nôtbc t monymntl pêntñz. H tc a wîldli dfṛnt aproč t āt-mcñ, fṛm hiz rsponsz t cnsymrssayti in ɖ 1960z t hiz intrest in travl, drugz n comynl livñ in ɖ 1970z n hiz incrisñli xperimntl practis aftr 1980.
Bnʈ Polca’z irevṛnt wit, pṛmiskys intelijns, n čansóṗrešnz le a dīp sceptisizm v ol oʈoṛti. It wd b impsbl t undrstand ɖs atityd, n ɖ crı̣tivti ɖt gru ât v it, wɖt cnsidrñ Polca’z bîogṛfi n its setñ. In 1945, nir ɖ end v Wrldwor II, hiz famli fled Sîlīža (in preznt-de Pôḷnd) fr ẇt wd sn b Sôvı̣t-okpîd Īst Jrṃni, n ɖen iscept agn, ɖs tîm t West Jrṃni, in 1953.
Polca gru p at a tîm ẇn mni Jrmnz dflctd blem fr ɖ atroṣtiz v ɖ Natsi pirı̣d wɖ ɖ alibî, I dd’nt si enʈñ. In verı̣s wrcs in ɖ xibišn, Polca opozz mni Jrmnz v hiz jeṇrešn’z tendnsi t ignor ɖ Natsi past, az f picñ of ɖ scab t riôpn ɖ wūnd.”