Sigmar Polke: Die Editionen 1963-2000: Catalogue Raisonné

The first complete accounting of the editions Sigmar Polke made across four decades, and the book that established them as central to his practice rather than a sideline to the paintings.

Jürgen Becker and Claus von der Osten had been gathering Polke's editioned work since the early 1970s; here they catalogue more than 140 of them, from the first efforts of 1963 through 2000 - prints, editioned drawings and photographs, objects, catalogue inserts, artist's books and posters. The volume runs to 424 pages with 388 illustrations, 238 in colour, and carries an essay by Martin Hentschel alongside cataloguing notes by Hubertus Butin. Hatje Cantz issued it in parallel German and English editions in August 2000, the English titled The Editions 1963-2000 (ISBN 978-3-7757-0957-6). Reference apparatus and picture book at once, it tracks the wit, the mockery and the constant technical improvisation that run through the editions.

Sigmar Polke (1941-2010) was born in Oels, Silesia, and studied at the Düsseldorf academy under Karl Otto Götz and Gerhard Hoehme, where he founded Capitalist Realism with Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg in 1963. He received the Goslar Kaiserring in November 2000, the year this catalogue appeared.