1987, Sigmar Polke, Color Panels (malachite) -- Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam)
From the museum label: In the 1980s, Sigmar Polke experimented like a modernday alchemist with the chemical substances and physical elements that make up paint. The German artist was fascinated by pre-modern knowledge systems, in which art and science had yet to split off into separate domains. In Farbtafeln, he selected rare and valuable pigments, including vermillion, malachite, and lapis lazuli, the same colors that were used in the medieval illuminated manuscript, The Book of Kells. Polke applies paint in a way that reflects upon color as a physical quality of a substance. By using pure pigments, the artist intended for the colors, and therefore the work, to change over time. The result marks Polke's contribution to the 20th century tradition of monochrome painting.
1987, Sigmar Polke, Color Panels (malachite) -- Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam)
From the museum label: In the 1980s, Sigmar Polke experimented like a modernday alchemist with the chemical substances and physical elements that make up paint. The German artist was fascinated by pre-modern knowledge systems, in which art and science had yet to split off into separate domains. In Farbtafeln, he selected rare and valuable pigments, including vermillion, malachite, and lapis lazuli, the same colors that were used in the medieval illuminated manuscript, The Book of Kells. Polke applies paint in a way that reflects upon color as a physical quality of a substance. By using pure pigments, the artist intended for the colors, and therefore the work, to change over time. The result marks Polke's contribution to the 20th century tradition of monochrome painting.