Kathrin Borgers is a research assistant at the Department of Art and Art History at TU Dortmund University. After studying art history, she completed her doctorate in 2022 on creative, technical, and art-theoretical aspects of monstrous figures in fifteenth-century panel paintings at the University of Cologne. She is currently working a postdoctoral project on early modern sculptural works made from “low value” materials. Her research interests include art technology, the history of science, art theory, and material iconography.
Scholarship 2025 - Dr. des. Kathrin Borgers, Sigmar Polke in the context of pre-modern pictorial contexts
Dr. des. Kathrin Borgers, Sigmar Polke in the context of pre-modern pictorial contexts
Sigmar Polke’s strong historical awareness of the conceptualization of artistic practice is reflected in many of his works. For example, he references pre-modern art-theoretical themes and playfully integrates them into his materials, his selection of motifs, and his technical composition. This corresponds to Polke’s guiding principle that in art there is no creatio ex nihilo it rather always is based on what already exists. Particularly relevant here is his work exploring material transformations, such as the Athanor installation in the German Pavilion at the XLII Venice Biennale in 1986, where he focused on traditional pigments (orpiment, realgar, malachite, azurite, cinnabar, tyrian purple). Clear references can be seen in the adoption of medieval and early modern iconography. Concepts such as natura naturans, alter deus, the distinction between artistic hierarchies, artistic self-reflection, and Hermetic theories can also be found in his work. When this principle is addressed in research on Polke, it is rarely linked back to specific pre-modern concepts. Recognizable motifs such as hares, Dürerschleifen (Dürer loops), illuminations from the Aelfric Paraphrase, or images from a floor mosaic in Siena Cathedral have already served as starting points for reflections on Polke’s historical references. These explorations focused on reproduction and duplication in particular, as demonstrated by the artist’s raster technique and choice of image support. Hans Belting describes Polke’s recourse to older art history as “negative theology,” in which painting “withdraws into its past and just as effortlessly designs its future,” thus opening up new freedoms.[1]
In my research, I intend to explore this approach beyond well-known visual references, focusing on Polke’s techniques, materials, and pictorial concepts through the following questions: How does Polke incorporate pre-modern theories, images, and materials into his artworks? What sources provide evidence of his engagement with pre-modern art (literature, interviews, the works themselves)? How does Polke update these references and place them in dialogue with contemporary topics? The central creative principles of Polke’s work grapple with fundamental questions about the meaning of art. As part of this, he appears to engage with and update pre-modern art-theoretical ideas.
The central creative principles of Polke’s work grapple with fundamental questions about the meaning of art. As part of this, he appears to engage with and update pre-modern art-theoretical ideas. Particularly striking in this regard is the relationship between art and nature, which is evident in his use of materials as an expression of nature in action (natura naturans). The paintings in the Athanor exhibition created using mineral pigments responded to environmental influences, allowing the images to evolve as part of a process. Something similar could be seen with the hydrosensitive murals, in which a cobalt chloride solution reacted to the lagoon climate and rendered natural processes visible.
These techniques are reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s Trattato della pittura (A Treatise on Painting), in which marks on the wall or clouds can serve as sources of inspiration.[2]
Polke’s understanding of nature as active is part of a tradition that explores questions of inspiration, imagination, and mimesis. This connection to natura naturans and the readymade can also be seen in the integration of natural objects (gold nuggets, crystals, meteorites, pieces of cinnabar, agate slices). The balance between artistic design and a material-driven process also alludes to the debate surrounding artistic genius—and ironically challenges it. For example, when Polke copies Dürer’s lines in the Dürerschleifen, he undermines the idea of genius by reducing it to a copy. The addition of graphite and silver oxide also creates processes that enable images to emerge independently of the artist. Any possible reference to the brilliant lines of Apelles and Protogenes remains as implicit as the idea of pure imagination, thought to be expressed by Dürer’s lines..
The early modern question of divine inspiration in the sense of alter deus is ironically subverted in Polke’s work—in hisHöhere Wesen (Higher Beings), for example, or his Kartoffelhaus (Potato House).[3] This theme is also evident in the windows of Zurich’s Grossmünster: Polke uses his signature to draw a distinction between the creative design and its technical execution, thus echoing the pre-modern discourse about the hierarchical classification of the fine arts. This distinction is ironically exaggerated by a second, hidden signature in the “P” of the Elijah window.
This project will examine these and similar references by Polke to pre-modern pictorial concepts in order to highlight the interplay between his artistic practices and the theoretical foundations of the pre-modern era. The focus will be on Polke’s use of traditional materials and iconographies, as well as art-theoretical concepts and how they are updated to fit contemporary topics.
[1] Hans Belting, “Über Lügen und andere Wahrheiten der Malerei: Einige Gedanken für S.P.,” in Sigmar Polke—die drei Lügen der Malerei, ed. Martin Hentschel, exh. cat. Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn (1997), pp. 129–144.
[2] Leonardo da Vinci, A Treatise on Painting, trans. John Francis Rigaud (London, 1802), p. 84.
[3] Friedrich Wolfram Heubach, “Sigmar Polke—Frühe Einflüsse, späte Folgen oder: Wie kamen die Affen in mein Schaffen? und andere ikono-biographische Fragen,” in Sigmar Polke—die drei Lügen der Malerei, ed. Martin Hentschel, exh. cat. Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn (1997), pp. 285–295, here p. 293.