Sigmar Polke & Cosima von Bonin

Mushroom

For these sculptures, Cosima von Bonin took the familiar shape of the mushroom, expanding it to outsized proportions. The result is an object that looks like a child’s stuffed toy, and seems just as soft and cuddly. Known for its hallucinogenic properties, the mushroom can be viewed as a symbol of unbridled imagination. However, Von Bonin doesn’t attach any particular meaning to these sculptures and gave the works numbers as titles.

Contemporary Alchemist

Like a modern-day alchemist, in the 1980s, Sigmar Polke experimented with the chemical substances and the physical ingredients that make up paint. For Farbtafeln, Polke used costly and rare color pigments in pure form, such as vermilion, malachite and lapis lazuli. Polke applied the paints in this series to emphasize the nature of color as a physical property of physicochemical compounds. The fact that the pigments he chose will change color over time highlights this point. With this, the artist gives his own interpretation of the modern tradition of the monochrome painting.