The Anna Polke Foundation, founded in 2018, is a non-profit foundation based in Cologne. Its main task is to encourage people to engage with the work of Sigmar Polke, who died in Cologne in 2010 and still today is one of the most influential contemporary artists. As the artist\u2019s daughter, the founder Anna Polke aims to keep alive her father\u2019s work and to invite academics and scholars to do research on Sigmar Polke\u2019s oeuvre. To this end, starting in 2019 the foundation is granting scholarships for academic research projects that open up new perspectives on Polke\u2019s work. The foundation's archive is available for research purposes. Furthermore, the foundation organizes symposia, exhibitions, publications, and an oral art history project. By supporting external projects and carrying out its own projects, the Anna Polke Foundation is involved in research, art, culture, and education, and, in the spirit of Sigmar Polke, intends to make a contribution to cultural life extending beyond the artist\u2019s life and that of the founder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anna Polke was born in 1964 as the second child of Karin and Sigmar Polke. Shortly after her birth her family moved into a flat on Kirchfeldstra\u00dfe in D\u00fcsseldorf, in which family life, the artist\u2019s studio, and a vibrant exchange with artist colleagues and collaborators merged. After Karin and Sigmar Polke separated, Anna lived with her mother and her brother Georg in Berlin. She studied acting at the Hochschule f\u00fcr Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Hamburg. After working at the Staatstheater Darmstadt and the Hamburger Schauspielhaus, she has since 1992 performed at Theater Oberhausen, where she received the audience prize twice and in 2018 was awarded the Jury First Prize for her role in Das dritte Leben des Fritz Giga<\/em>. In addition, she is active as a photographer and filmmaker and has shown her work in various exhibitions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nicole Ruppert studied German language and literature and history at the Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin. Her career path led from the cultural office of the city of Wolfsburg, to the Empore theatre in Buchholz in der Nordheide, to a post as the Commercial Manager of the Estate of Sigmar Polke. In her many years as a cultural manager, she has conceived and carried out countless events.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Sophia Stang studied art history, German philology, as well as culture, communications, and management in M\u00fcnster and Berlin. She has previously held positions such as at the Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast in D\u00fcsseldorf, the Estate of Sigmar Polke in Cologne, and as a research assistant at the Chair for Art History at Friedrich-Schiller-Universit\u00e4t Jena under Prof. Dr. Verena Krieger within the framework of a research project sponsored by the German Research Association, DFG. She is doing her doctorate, also in Jena, on Giorgio de Chirico\u2019s art-theoretical and autobiographical writings in the context of the magazine Valori Plastici<\/em>.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Kathrin Barutzki studied art history, German language and literature, and modern history in Cologne, Bonn and Rome. After finishing her studies in 2011, she worked among others at the Ludwig Forum f\u00fcr Internationale Kunst in Aachen, at the Kunsthalle D\u00fcsseldorf, for the Estate of Sigmar Polke, as a freelance author and curator, and as a lecturer at the Kunstakademie D\u00fcsseldorf. She completed her doctorate at the Universit\u00e4t zu K\u00f6ln on the subject of photographic strategies and multiple exhibition concepts in art around 1970.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Nelly Gawellek studied art history and general rhetoric in T\u00fcbingen. After finishing her studies in 2011, she worked as a gallery director in Cologne and Berlin and a research associate for the Estate of Sigmar Polke in Cologne, among others. She is also a freelance author and curator focussing on current artistic positions and is a board member of And She Was Like: B\u00c4M! e.V, a feminist network for arts and design.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Rosa R\u00e4derscheidt studied art history and theatre studies in Berlin and Cologne. She has worked at the Berliner Ensemble, at the Bassenge auction house and in galleries. In addition to her work at the Anna Polke Foundation, she manages the estate of the artist Marta Hegemann.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Silke R\u00f6ckelein studied art history and modern German literature and media studies in Marburg and Poitiers and completed her doctorate at the University of Frankfurt am Main. She has worked for the Digital Art and Culture Archive, D\u00fcsseldorf, and the German Digital Library, among others. She works also as a research assistant in the Collections and Archives department of the Insel Hombroich Foundation, Neuss, since 2013.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Elsa Wellmann-Gilcher studied art history, art \u2013 media \u2013 cultural education, classical archaeology, and museology in Frankfurt am Main, Rome, and Bonn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\nTEAM<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Nicole Ruppert<\/h4>
Managing Director and Head of Administration<\/h5>
Sophia Stang<\/h4>
Managing Director and Head of Research
Dr. Kathrin Barutzki<\/h4>
Project Manager
Nelly Gawellek<\/h4>
Project Manager
ROSA R\u00c4DERSCHEIDT<\/h4>
Research Assistant
Dr. Silke R\u00f6ckelein<\/h4>
Research Associate
ELSA WELLMANN-GILCHER<\/h4>
Research Associate
THE FOUNDATION\u2019S BODIES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n