Mixed media

Polke layers different materials to create this collaged work, including wood, cloth, and paint.

Take a read

Here's another element of the work that draws the eye. This is a framed collage containing a newspaper cutting and a book cover, with the author’s name intentionally hidden.

Printing press

Sigmar Polke takes images from the mass media and prints them onto various elaborate combinations of cloth.

Coffee crate

Over a dull domestic interior, the word Kathreiner, taken from a wooden crate, refers to a well-known brand of malt coffee that was drunk in Germany during the years of the economic miracle.

Upside down

To emphasize his postmodern ideas, Polke savagely criticizes the artistic tradition by inverting his own name.

Polke or Matisse?

Signing as 'Henri Matisse' in the bottom left corner, Polke ironizes in this way on the need for an artwork to be signed in order to guarantee its authenticity and therefore its value.

Stylistic turning point

Produced in the same year in which Kandinsky wrote his book 'Point and Line to Plane', this painting represents a stylistic turning point as the line bends and there are gradations of color again.

The balance of elements

This basis of this painting lies in the balance between contradictory and complementary elements. To the left are geometric lines and luminous colors. To the right are sinuous forms and dark hues.

Primary colors

The main emphasis is on the three primary colors, which form the basis of Kandinsky's studies and articulate the composition around two centers.

Pioneer of abstract art

Kandinsky is generally credited as the pioneer of abstract art, playing with different shapes, colours, forms, and gestural marks.