Critics Debate Polke's Dualities at MoMA Retrospective

Five critics—Eric Gelber, Nora Griffin, Suzanne Joelson, Drew Lowenstein, and Saul Ostrow—engaged in an email roundtable about MoMA's Sigmar Polke retrospective, 'Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010,' on view until August 3, 2014. The discussion centered on Polke's polarities: personal/political, sacred/profane, mystic/materialist. Griffin highlighted works like 'Starry Heavens Cloth' (1968) and 'The Hunt for the Taliban and Al Quaeda' (2002) as bookends. Joelson contrasted intimate journal drawings with performative paintings, noting Polke's distrust of commerce versus American Pop artists. Ostrow saw the chaotic installation as fitting Polke's post-war German context, comparing him to Jasper Johns. Gelber criticized the lack of works on paper and depth, while Lowenstein emphasized Polke's playful resistance to gravitas, citing the watchtower series as ambiguous. The roundtable explored Polke's use of Ben-Day dots, photography, and material experimentation, with references to Kiefer, Richter, Warhol, and Brechtian alienation.