Scholarship 2019 - Dr. Julie Sissia, „Cher Maître". Sigmar Polke and France

"Sigmar Polke (1941-2010) is one of the great painters of the second half of the twentieth century. We know this everywhere in Europe, except in France [...]"[1].
In this succinct statement in the daily newspaper Le Monde from 2013, the art historian Philippe Dagen deplores French museums' lack of interest in Sigmar Polke. While the artist was celebrated at MoMA and Tate Modern, the Musée national d'art moderne in Paris preferred Anselm Kiefer and Jeff Koons. However, this criticism must be viewed in a more differentiated way.
"Cher Maître" (Dear Master)... Suzanne Pagé turned to Sigmar Polke with admiration during the preparation of his exhibition at the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris (1988)[2]. As director of the museum and the ARC – an experimental art space housed in the same building – Suzanne Pagé made this institution an indispensable contemporary art venue in France beginning inthe early 1970s. At the museum, she particularly supported German artists of Sigmar Polke's generation. In 1981, Polke was on view in the exhibition Art Allemagne Aujourd'hui; with the famous Berlin gallery owner René Block, she brought together artists who had made Germany one of the world’s most dynamic art centres[3]. French museums’ late recognition of an entire generation of German artists was a consequence of the painful history between the two countries; it was also due to the reluctance of French critics and art historians since the 1960s to accept that Paris was no longer the international art capital. The recognition of German artists in 1980s France was hardly unanimous.
While in the 1980s the German identity that several German artists laid claim to irritated certain protagonists of the French art scene, Sigmar Polke enjoyed unanimous recognition. So what place does he occupy in the French discourse, and according to what criteria are his works perceived? I would like to investigate the extent to which French art historians and critics nevertheless viewed Sigmar Polke politically. The artist steered clear of national categories and was therefore not classified as a "German artist". But like his work, his French reception cannot be regarded as apolitical for this reason. From the bicentenary of the French Revolution (1989), to the exhibition Les Magiciens de la terre – which was also part of this celebration – Polke's works are showcased in artistic events with strong political content that interrogate the history of France from an international perspective as well as its place in an increasingly globalized world.
To what extent did French critics, and French artists, regard Polke's work as epitomizing new artistic paradigms? Is French discourse on his work singular in a time of crisis in modernity, which is often described in a somewhat hasty generalization as 'postmodernism'? The study intends to examine the values, as well as the prejudices – even if they are positive – on which the discourse on Polke's work is based. These hypotheses require a broader perspective on the French context. On the one hand, it is necessary to confront the French reception with other art critiques, whether in Germany (in the influential journal Texte zur Kunst), or in the USA (for example October); on the other hand, the role of relevant events, especially the Venice Biennale of 1986, which played an important part in the assessment of Sigmar Polke's work also in France, must be taken into account.

[1]Philippe Dagen, Comment Sigmar Polke a rajeuni le vieil art de peindre, in Le Monde, 2 December 2013.
[2]Paris, Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, archives of the exhibition Polke, 20 October–31 December 1988.
[3]Art Allemagne Aujourd’hui, Paris, Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, 17 January–8 March 1981.