Sigmar Polke: Lens Paintings

The Arts Club of Chicago, in cooperation with Michael Werner Gallery, New York and Berlin, is pleased to announce a major exhibition, Sigmar Polke: Lens Paintings. Sigmar Polke (b. 1941, Oels/Schlesien, East Germany) is one of the most important artists of the post-war generation. This exhibition presents a new body of work by the artist. The Lens Paintings were first exhibited on the occasion of the Rubens Prize, awarded to the artist in 2007 by the Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Siegen, Germany.

The Lens Paintings are a new development for an artist whose career is characterized by over 40 years of radical painting. The conceptual framework of the Lens Paintings is grounded in theories set forth by Johann Zahn in his 1685 book, Oculus artificialis teledioptricus, sive telescopium (The Teledioptric Artificial Eye, or Telescope). Zahn, a monk in the Premonstrate Order, was an important figure in the development of the camera obscura, and his "teledioptric artificial eye", a forerunner of the telephoto lens. According to Zahn, every luminous object in the universe varies in appearance depending on the viewer's position.

Polke's interest in this idea was first manifest in the artist's commission for the reopening of the Reichstag in Berlin, for which he created a series of large, three-dimensional lightboxes. Lighted from behind, images seen through the grooved surfaces of these lightboxes changed as one moved past them. This led Polke to devise a system in his studio allowing him to create, in paint, a corrugated, refractive surface that mimics an industrially manufactured lenticular lens. This painted "lens" generates a variety of distortions, mutations and spatial illusions when seen from different viewpoints. Sigmar Polke: Lens Paintings deals with the artist's exploration of these concepts through more than three dozen works created over the past five years.

This exhibition marks the first time the Lens Paintings have been shown outside of Seigen, Germany. The Arts Club of Chicago is publishing a full-color catalogue with a text by art historian and curator Chrissie Iles.

Sigmar Polke: Lens Paintings is on view at Galerie Michael Werner, Berlin, from 1 November through 20 December 2008, with a public opening Friday, 31 October, from 6 to 9 pm. The exhibition then travels to The Arts Club of Chicago, where it is on view 22 January to 17 April 2009; and to Michael Werner Gallery, New York, from 29 April to 29 June 2009.

Sigmar Polke: Lens Paintings
Ort: Galerie Michael Werner, Berlin

Stationen:
01.11.08 - 20.12.08 Galerie Michael Werner, Märkisch Wilmersdorf
(Galerie Michael Werner, Berlin)
22.01.09 - 17.04.09 Arts Club of Chicago
29.04.09 - 29.06.09 Michael Werner Gallery, New York