Michael Werner Gallery is pleased to present two exhibitions of works on paper by the seminal German artist, Sigmar Polke. Knoedler and Company, in cooperation with Michael Werner, will exhibit new large-format drawings and Michael Werner Gallery will show a series of unusual and little-known early works.
The works on paper at Michael Werner Gallery will be selected from sketch books and portfolios from the late Sixties through the late Eighties, many of which have never been exhibited before. The drawings in the exhibition were executed in series; it is this method of working in sequences that reveals the complexity and depth of the artist's creative process.
At Knoedler and Company, a group of highly original works on paper will be shown. The drawings, impressive in both scale and technique, have a richly painted iridescent surface and a complex layering of materials and alchemical substances.
Polke’s work has been the subject of major museum retrospectives including the San Francisco Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C.; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; IVAM, Valencia; Musee d’arte Contemporain, Nimes; Tate Gallery, Liverpool; Staatliches Museum, Schwerin; Kunsthaller Bundesrepublik Deutscheland, Bonn; Nationalgalerie, Berlin.
Polke has been awarded a number of prizes, including the Golden Lion at the XLII Venice Biennale in 1986, the Erasmus Prize in Amsterdam in 1994, the Carnegie Award at the Carnegie International in 1995, the Infinity Award from the International Center for Photography in New York in 1998 and the Wold Prize of Israel in 1999.
The exhibition at Michael Werner Gallery will be on view from 30 March through 15 May. Gallery hours at Michael Werner are Monday through Saturday, 10am until 6pm. The exhibition at Knoedler and Company will be on view from 30 March through 24 April.
Both exhibitions coincide with a major retrospective of Polke drawings from 1963 to 1974, opening 1 April at the Museum of Modem Art.
For further information, please contact the gallery.