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Sigmar Polke

1941–2010

Potato Machine - Apparatus Whereby One Potato Can Orbit Another 1969
© The estate of Sigmar Polke/ DACS 2025
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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Rooms

2 artworks by Sigmar Polke
View by Appointment

Biography

Sigmar Polke (13 February 1941 – 10 June 2010) was a German painter and photographer. Polke experimented with a wide range of styles, subject matters and materials. In the 1970s, he concentrated on photography, returning to paint in the 1980s, when he produced abstract works created by chance through chemical reactions between paint and other products. In the last 20 years of his life, he produced paintings focused on his perception of historical events.

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Kinetic art Conceptual art

Artworks

Left Right
  • Hallo Shiva

    Sigmar Polke
    1974
  • Figure with Hand (I Am Made Dizzy by a Carpet of Rose-Petals...)

    Sigmar Polke
    1973
    View by appointment
  • Girlfriends I

    Sigmar Polke
    1967
    View by appointment
  • Untitled (Triptych)

    Sigmar Polke
    2002
  • Untitled (Square 2)

    Sigmar Polke
    2003
  • Potato Machine - Apparatus Whereby One Potato Can Orbit Another

    Sigmar Polke
    1969

Film and audio

  • TateShots

    Sigmar Polke: Invention and Experimentation

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