Sigmar Polke: The Editions

Editioned work held a special place within the oeuvre and working methods of Sigmar Polke (1941–2010): it represented both a way to conduct intensive variations on unique works, and also to transform identical prints into unique objects by altering the foreground, background, or layering.

His editions—which comprise objects, books, folders, photography, photocopies, collages and prints—and his painting should therefore be understood as symbiotic. Polke’s images are products of his world; they reveal the changing society of the postwar years. The banality of everyday life, the aspirations of the middle classes, national and international politics—all of this, Polke placed under a microscope and reconfigured. Featuring approximately 200 works from the collection Kunstraum am Limes, this catalog contains all of the artist’s editions.