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While painting remains central to Sigmar Polke’s legacy, photography became a vital medium for him in the late 1960s and 1970s. Traveling widely, Polke used photography not for documentation, but as a tool for experimentation and reimagining the world. He manipulated negatives, used multiple exposures, blurred images, hand-colored prints, and embraced collage and layering. Rather than producing editions, Polke treated each print as a unique object shaped by chance and spontaneous darkroom interventions.
Sigmar Polke: Photographs features early works, including the edition …Höhere Wesen befehlen (…Higher Beings Command) (1967–68). Most works on view are from the 1970s and include portraits of fellow artists such as Georg Baselitz, Günter Brus, James Lee Byars, Gilbert & George, and Arnulf Rainer. The exhibition also includes images from Polke’s travels to Paris, Pakistan, and Antwerp, where he saw A.R. Penck’s 1972 show at Wide White Space.