Cologne Beggars IV (Kölner Bettler IV) 1972

This compelling print is by Sigmar Polke, who was born in 1941. What you see are layers of silver-grey ink creating a ghostly image. I imagine Polke in the darkroom coaxing this image into being, shifting and emerging through experimentation. I sympathize with the artist, thinking about what it might have been like to make this. What was he thinking when he chose this image? There is a sense of melancholy, or the mundane, about a beggar in a crowd. The image is built of texture, color, and the physicality of the medium. The ink is applied in such a way as to make parts of the image disappear as if they never existed. It’s very sad. I can't help but think how artists are always in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of expression which embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations and meanings.