An international, decentralized, and interdisciplinary research and education project initiated by the Anna Polke Stiftung
40 years after the celebrated presentation of Sigmar Polke’s Athanor installation in the German Pavilion at the 1986 Venice Biennale, Sigmar Polke. Athanor NOW reactivates this now-iconic constellation of works with current artistic and scholarly perspectives. The program focuses on themes such as ecology, alchemy, materiality, politics, and technology.
Athanor—the ensemble of works named after the alchemical furnace intended to yield the philosopher’s stone via transformations of matter—reveals the full Polke cosmos: Polizeischwein (Police Pig), created using the raster technique which Polke has been known for since the 1960s, greeted visitors on the exterior wall of the German pavilion’s monumental Nazi-era building, while the painting Hände vorm Gesicht (Hands in Front of Face) flanked the entrance.
Inside the historically charged exhibition space, visitors encountered new works and series created specifically for the site: in addition to six large-scale abstract paintings made with glossy synthetic sealant—the so-called mirror or lacquer paintings—the artist created an abstract, gestural mural in the apse of the pavilion with salt-based pigment that responded to the atmosphere of the Venetian lagoon, shifting from a delicate blue to a bright pink depending on the humidity. Polke extended this manifestation of the natural forces at play by positioning naturally occurring objects—a cinnabar stone, a rock crystal, and a meteorite—within the space. Other paintings incorporated natural pigments and earth colors as well as synthetically produced materials, lacquers, and resins, some of which were toxic. The abundance of materials clearly demonstrates Polke’s joy in experimenting with the widest variety of substances, supports, motifs, and objects.
In the Dürerschleifen (Dürer Loops) group of paintings, he transferred elements from a 1523 woodcut by Albrecht Dürer onto canvases dusted with graphite powder.In the four monochrome Farbtafeln (Color Panels) onto which Polke sprinkled and spread pure, partly toxic pigments, the colors and materials themselves became the subject of the image. The artist’s deep interest in the transformation of matter—and of paint in particular—is also revealed in the elaborate painting process behind Purpurtuch (Purple Cloth), a light silk textile partially painted with ornamental forms. The traces of Tyrian purple dye, which Polke extracted himself from the secretion of murex snails, only take on their full color in sunlight and undergo transformations during application and the subsequent drying process. Polke also came to be regarded as an “alchemist” after the Athanor installation, which won him the Golden Lion.
In offering a fresh perspective on this particularly productive phase during the 1980s, the project Sigmar Polke. Athanor NOW expands the artist’s reception: artists and researchers from various disciplines will pick up on aspects of the historical constellation of Polke works and connect his engagement with diverse contexts and materials to current issues in practice and theory. Culture-historical approaches will thus be enriched by perspectives from literature and philosophy, the digital humanities, and the natural and technical sciences.
Through numerous formats—including guided tours and collection interventions, university courses and workshops, educational programs, podcasts and digital offerings, a summer school, and a major solo exhibition at the De Pont Museum in Tilburg—the international year-long program reactivates works from the multilayered installation and related pieces within contemporary contexts. Situated between scholarly research, artistic interaction, and public discourse, Sigmar Polke. Athanor NOW traces the influences emanating from Polke’s thinking and making, which—forty years after the presentation in Venice—acquire new relevance today in the form of new constellations.
Cooperating partners: Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München (DE), Albrecht Dürer-Haus, Nürnberg (DE), Ulrike Arnold, Düsseldorf (DE), Ca’ Foscari University, Venedig (IT), CCCB Centre de Cultura de Barcelona, Barcelona (ES), C/O Berlin, Berlin (DE), Cockburn Geological Museum at the School of GeoSciences & University of Edinburgh / Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Edinburgh (GB-SCT), De Pont Museum, Tilburg (NL), Ghent University, Ghent (BR), Großmünster, Zürich (CH), Freie Universität Berlin, EXC 2020 Temporal Communities, Berlin (DE), Freunde des Wallraf-Richartz-Museum und des Museum Ludwig e.V., Köln (DE), Haus am Waldsee, Berlin (DE), Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Masterstudiengang Kunstvermittlung und Kulturmanagement, Düsseldorf (DE), ifa Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, ifa-Galerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart (DE), Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Colonia, Köln (DE), Kingston University, London (GB), Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld (DE), Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich (CH), Kunsthochschule Mainz, Mainz (DE), KHM Kunsthochschule für Medien, Köln (DE), Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Krefeld (DE), Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn (DE), MAM Musée d'art Moderne de Paris, Paris (FR), Raewyn Martyn, Edinburg (SCO) Mineralien-Museum, Essen (DE), Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (DE), Museum Folkwang, Essen (DE), Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, Siegen (DE), Museum Ludwig Köln, Köln (DE), Monash University, Department of Fine Art, Melbourne (AUS), Novartis Campus, Basel (CH), Palomar Observatory, San Diego (US), Pinakothek der Moderne, München (DE), Stefanie Pluta, Köln (DE), Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam (NL), RMIT University, Department School of Art, Melbourne (AUS), Ruhr Museum, Essen (DE), Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin (DE), San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego (US), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (US), Berit Schneidereit, Düsseldorf (DE), Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart (DE), Städtische Galerie, Karlsruhe (DE), Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, CAPE Department, Neapel (IT), Technische Universität Berlin, Fachgebiet Literaturwissenschaft mit dem Schwerpunkt Literatur und Wissenschaft, Institut für Philosophie, Literatur-, Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte, Berlin (DE), Technische Universität Dortmund, Seminar für Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft, Dortmund (DE), Universität Bielefeld, Kunstpädagogik und Kunstvermittlung, Fakultät für Linguistik und Literaturwissenschaft, Bielefeld (DE), Universität Hamburg, Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar, Hamburg (DE), Universität zu Köln, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Köln (DE), Universität der Künste Berlin, Berlin (DE), Université de Lausanne, Lausanne (CH), Universität Siegen, Institut für Kunst, Kunstgeschichte und Kunstpädagogik, Siegen (DE), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Art & Culture, Amsterdam (NL), Nico Joana Weber, Köln (DE), Schaudepot des Ruhr Museums auf Zollverein, Essen (DE), ZI Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Forschungsgruppe „Kunst, Umwelt, Ökologie“, München (DE)
We thank the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation, Zurich, for the generous support of the project.
If you have any questions about the project, please contact Dr. Kathrin Barutzki, at barutzki@anna-polke-stiftung.com.