With his multifaceted works in the areas painting, drawing, photography and prints, Sigmar Polke ( born 1941 Oels/Silesia at that time part of Germany, lives in Cologne/Germany) is one of the internationally most acclaimed contemporary German artists after the Second World War. During his career spanning more than forty years, Sigmar Polke received numerous international prizes and his works were shown in museums worldwide.

He became known for his unconventional painting techniques which make use of materials such as fabrics and paint from a whole range of sources. Apart from traditional paint, lacquers, and ordinary household paint, Polke often uses paint which changes its chemical properties, reacting in changes of color. His imagery from the 1960s up to the present day includes references to popular culture, historical works by painters such as Albrecht Dürer or Francis Picabia, expressions of the unconscious, the supernatural, alchemy and chance, which Polke considers to have a strong influence on our fate and creative life.

These elements of content are expressed in an often associative and humoristic narrative, or in abstract paintings, such as Untitled in The UBS Art Collection.The idea that our life is dominated by chance and influences beyond our conscious perception becomes subversively evident in this work, which is typical for a body of Polke’s works from the 1980s. On a cardboard base, the all-over composition shows an abstract network of brown and black, white, yellow and green blots, drips and washed colors of dispensing ink, black dots and also shoe-prints. It appears that during the process of producing the work, the cardboard has been moved or shaken in order to generate the drips of color, which have taken their own directions and have created a chance composition. Disrespecting traditional painting techniques, Untitled is an artwork combining a variety of creative impulses.

Reference: Sigmar Polke. Die drei Lügen der Malerei, exh.cat. Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, published by Ostfildern-Ruit:Hatje Cantz, 1997.