Speaking of his Laterna Magica works, a grouping of translucent screens worked from each side, and the transparency entwined within them, the artist commented on the state of fux confronting the viewer: ‘I wanted to make a mirror with lacquer where you stand in front of it and see what is behind you… Then you paint what you see behind you onto the picture that is in front of you. The next thing is this: while you’re seeing what’s behind you, you start to have thoughts about what is in front of you that you can’t see. Because the illusion is already there and perfect’ (Sigmar Polke, quoted in Sigmar Polke: Laterna Magica, exh. cat., Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, 1994, p. 44). In the 1980s Polke paired his alchemic experiments with political and historical themes. Harnessing the power of science and chance, the artist celebrated and constantly challenged the efects of pigment and chemicals. Exemplary of the scope of his investigations is Athanor, his contribution to the Pavilion of the Federal Republic of Germany during the Venice Biennale of 1986. Here, as in the present work, the artist’s concern with alchemy was underscored together with his afnity for manipulating and deconstructing images. Alchemy pairs materials with thoughts and a unitary and emanational outlook of the universe. The relationship
between alchemic theory and practice resounds throughout Polke’s vast and prolifc oeuvre. Whilst the artist directly experimented with chemicals and the diverse and variable efects of pigment, he also incorporated alchemic symbolism directly into works from his Laterna Magica series which he commenced in 1988 and concluded in 1996. Regularly citing Michael Maier’s Atalanta fugiens, the alchemical emblem book published in 1617, the artist pairs alchemical symbolism and classical mythology with physical and chemical experimentation. Works such as Untitled cement Polke’s position as an alchemist in the art historical canon, his application of colour and concern with chemical experimentation visible in method, form and content. Exceptionally kinetic, Untitled, remains fundamentally connected to its support whilst the transparency of the image simultaneously projects the picture into real space outside the confnes of the plane. Characteristic of Polke’s interrogation of aesthetic potential, the present composition challenges the hierarchy of image and questions our means of perception. Recalling a history of illusionism, Polke harnesses technical and chemical innovations to shape the visual experience leaving the viewer caught between the visible and invisible, the transparent and the opaque.
Installation view of Athanor at the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, 1986 © The Estate of Sigmar Polke, Cologne, DACS 2018
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