Sigmar Polke

In this exhibition Sigmar Polke commemorated the bicentennial of the French Revolution in his own distinctive manner. His testimony continues the lively interest that certain German intellectuals have always had in this event. Goethe, like many of the early Romantics, saw in the Revolution the realization of his dreams and hopes, even if the turn of events brought him disillusionment and disenchantment. Polke’s vision is, in this perspective, one of the most original ones. He doesn’t cover up the violent, even bloody, nature of this event, emphasizing that violence wasn’t merely a perverse effect

print March 1989

Pierre et Gilles

Pierre is a photographer. Gilles is a painter. Ever since their meeting in 1977, when they decided to work collaboratively, they have been using both disciplines to create images in which their two universes mingle lovingly. To the desperate and provocative punk images that were dominant at the time, Pierre et Gilles opposed tender and saccharin representations, largely influenced by Indian and Egyptian cinema, popular imagery, and fairy tales. They proposed a kind of gaiety and sweet abandon in a world preoccupied with crises and enclosed in skepticism.

In 1981, they completed the “Paradises”