Spiegelung I

Sigmar Polke was born in 1941 in Oels, Lower Silesia, and died in Cologne in 2010. He was a painter and photographer. Polke did not use cameras and photography to reflect what the eye can already see. Rather, using techniques like double exposure, partial development, and the processing of expired chemicals, it was his aim to create photographic art that reflected inner states. Often, he distorted his subject to such an extent that it became a surreal representation of his emotional world. The works "Mirroring I" and "Mirroring II" make this clear. They could be photos of his emotional landscape, occasioning an intimate contact between the viewer and the artist. Polke leaves it up to the viewer to determine how deeply one penetrates into the photo, and thus how closely one manages to approach Polke's own emotion.