Chocolate Painting (Schokoladenbild) 1964

Sigmar Polke made this painting of a chocolate bar, sometime in the 1960s, using paint on canvas. Polke’s “Chocolate Painting” appropriates the visual language of advertising, ironically elevating a mundane consumer product to the level of high art. Painted in West Germany, the artwork reflects the booming postwar economy and the increasing availability of consumer goods. The stark, almost mechanical, reproduction of the chocolate bar, combined with the rigid striped background, evokes a sense of mass production and commodification. The references to Pop Art are unmistakable, but Polke's art maintains a critical edge by emphasizing the artificiality and emptiness of consumer culture. To better understand Polke's work, one can delve into the history of postwar German art and its relationship to consumerism. We could also reflect on the role of institutions in shaping perceptions of art and commerce.