Irrläufer (Misdirected) embodies Sigmar Polke’s skill and enthusiasm in juxtaposing the figurative with the abstract, expounding his belief that these techniques should have a complementary relationship, rather than being considered diaMetricas lly opposed. In the present work, the tensions inherent in this juxtaposition create a dreamlike, hallucinogenic world. The composition is anchored by a central whorl of white paint around which delicate fragments of faces spin, layered over and through larger areas of dripping yellow and blue paint. In its painted elements, the work is alive with a chaotic, multidirectional energy, further amplified by Polke’s use of two contrasting pieces of patterned fabric, sewn together to form the ground. In this regard, Irrläufer (Misdirected) should be considered as a supreme and complex example of the artist’s Stoffbilder, which employed mass-produced fabrics as a means of reinvigorating and reconfiguring the medium of painting in the 1970s and 80s.

Polke’s use of these colourful, commercial fabrics ties the work into the sphere of consumption and the reality of a working-class existence in the Federal Republic of Germany, subject to the mythology of the West German economic miracle. Initially, he began searching for fabric with Blinky Palermo, but found they were interested in different types of material: “I did not like going fabric shopping with Palermo, because that was too stupid, I always had to look for some patterns [Muster], and for me it was more about the pattern [Rapport] than only monochromy…” (Sigmar Polke quoted in: Christine Mehring, “Polke’s Patterns,” in Exh. Cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art, Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963 – 2010, 2014, p. 234). Incorporating these patterns into his paintings created nonsensical compositions, exemplified by Irrläufer (Misdirected), further allowing him to satirically comment on the economic uncertainty and capitalist absurdity of a divided Germany in the 1980s. These sociocultural fractures find physical form in the present work where the poured paint has splashed across the regulated patterns of the manufactured materials, disrupting and subverting its ordered, mass-produced geometry. The more carefully articulated forms and figures that emerge from the swirling central mass add a further layer of confusion, both aesthetically and conceptually. Perhaps most notable are the cow’s skull and the lying figure in the lowermost corners, symbols that link yet also distinguish this work from art historical precedents. These competing elements raise critical questions about aesthetic conventions, challenging ideas concerning authorship, spectatorship and authenticity in a manner recognisable from Pop Art.

This pictorial disruption, dissonance and subversion are typical of Polke. Sean Rainbird, director of the National Gallery of Ireland, aptly described Polke's practice as "elusive as he is himself. [Polke] has constructed a persona that plays with the concepts of inspiration and originality. Within this cult of creativity, he is an elfin presence, a shrouded mystic, a magician projecting illusions" (Sean Rainbird quoted in: Exh. Cat., Liverpool, Tate Liverpool, Sigmar Polke: Join the Dots, 1995, p. 9). In spilling, layering and dispersing paint seemingly at random across the pictorial plane, Polke procures an effect that flits between translucency and opacity. This almost alchemical aesthetic recalls the artist’s influential apprenticeship at a stained-glass factory in Dusseldorf, which he undertook early on in his career. As such, Polke’s work of the 1980s exhibits complex and multifarious influences, constituting an exceptionally productive period in his practice. Indeed, Polke would win the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Biennale in 1986, marking this decade as one of the most significant and formative periods of his career.

Amidst the wit and irreverence of his paintings, it is easy to overlook Polke’s sheer technical mastery. Understanding the properties of his materials allowed him to experiment freely with the conventions of art and art history and avoid any single style or medium. This is fully evident in Irrläufer (Misdirected), where colours and forms whirl around each other as if locked together, recalling not only a phantasmic whirlpool or mechanical engine, but also Polke’s own Propellerfrauen, first created in the 1970s. “Polke appears now to delegate ever more processes in his painting, while remaining in ultimate control... [His motifs] are often readable only as fragments depicting human agency, against the increasingly unstructured grounds on which he has limited the autograph mark by allowing the liquids he applies to find their own final shape” (Sean Rainbird, “Seams and Appearances: learning to paint with Sigmar Polke,” in: Exh. Cat., Liverpool, Tate Liverpool, Sigmar Polke, Join the Dots, 1995, p. 22). The control that he exerts over the present work can be seen in his careful use of colour to make the composition cohesive, employing red and blue pigment across its surface to chromatically sew together the contrasting fabrics.

Polke challenges us to unravel the riddles he presents yet does so in a way that ultimately leaves interpretation a matter of personal opinion. Peter Schjeldahl comments on the enigmatic nature of Polke’s oeuvre: “To learn more and more about him, it has somet.mes s seemed to me, is to know less and less. His art is like Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland rabbit hole, entrance to a realm of spiralling perplexities” (Peter Schjeldhal, “The Daemon and Sigmar Polke,” in: Exh. Cat., San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Sigmar Polke, 1990-91, p. 17). This magical, phantasmagorical aspect, present in Irrläufer (Misdirected) and many of his works, can perhaps unsurprisingly be linked to his experimentation with psychedelic substances in the late 1960s and 70s: “I learned a great deal from drugs – the most important thing being that the conventional definition of reality, and the idea of ‘normal life,’ mean nothing” (Sigmar Polke quoted in: Kristine McKenna, “Sigmar Polke’s Layered Look,” LA t.mes s, 3 December 1995, online). The present work is appropriately kaleidoscopic; it demonstrates Sigmar Polke’s disruptive painterly style, exemplifies his vast artistic ambition, and distils his unique ability to hover between abstract and figurative modes of depiction.