Bunnies.
Title
Bunnies .
Creator
Polke, Sigmar (German painter, born 1941)
Date
1966
Cultural Context
German West German European Western European
Style/Period
Capitalist Realism Modern (styles and periods)
Subject
Capitalism Glamour photographs Sex Seduction Lust Women Bathing beauties Posing Lingerie Bathing suits
Description
"In subsequent paintings by Polke , deliberately inept versions of American Pop techniques ironically signaled West Germany's 'secondary ' cultural/economic status vis-à-vis America . In his Rasterbilder works he subverted [Roy] Lichtenstein's stylization of printer's dots by exploding his photographic motifs into molecular fields . The elements of these fields achieved a distracting autonomy - some dots were half-formed , others merged . In the case of Bunnies this atomizing of the image implied a critique of capitalism's marketing of female sexuality : the closer the (male) spectator peers at these Playboy 'Bunnies ', the more they 'break up ', their mouths dispersing in red showers . Commenting on his dots , Polke amusingly linked their perverse behavior to his personality , acknowledging an obvious pun on his name : 'I love all dots . I am married to many of them. I want all dots to be happy . Dots are my brothers . I am a dot myself.' " (Excerpt , pp.126-127)
Material
Acrylic on linen Acrylic paint Paint Linen (material)
Measurements
149.2 x 99.1 cm
Technique
Ben Day process Painting (image-making)
Work Type
Paintings Acrylic paintings
Repository
Smithsonian Institution, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC) Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC)
Source
Hopkins, David. After Modern Art: 1945-2000. Oxford History of Art. Oxford; New York: Oxford UP, 2000. (p.127, fig.63)
Rights
Photo: Lee Stalsworth. Reproduced in Hopkins courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC. Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest and Purchase Funds, 1992.
Digital Publisher
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center
Format
image/jpeg
Digital File Name
VRC 826-20.jpg
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