I went to this exhibition several times. I must admit I knew nothing of Polke until this exhibition and cannot really understand how that was the case. Perhaps he was not a grade A innovator but his work is extensive and striking.
Starting with pop art and the intrusion of working through his German identity, the exhibition continued through to an extraordinary room of structures like a sort of conservatory with extensive use of potatoes. He then went into a druggy/hippy phase, marked firstly by some clever works such as tracing out his name in a constellation of stars. Then there are works from his trips to and in Afghanistan which included some striking and disturbing videos of bear baiting and dog fights as well as quite explicit sexual imagery.
The latter half of the exhibition was made up of large works, most memorably a room of watch towers, a triptych entitled negative value that resembled the negative of a photograph, and works made with soot. I was also struck by individual works like Paganini and Mrs Autumn and her two daughters, Britta's Pigs and the Illusionist.
All in all a really interesting exhibition though for me not quite on a par with the Richter exhibition.
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