Knochen Mobile 1981

Curator: Hello, and welcome. Editor: We're looking at Sigmar Polke's "Knochen Mobile" from 1981, done in mixed media including acrylic paint. There's something almost playful about it, yet the bone imagery feels unsettling against that colourful backdrop. How do you interpret this work? Curator: The juxtaposition is key. Polke, working in a Germany wrestling with its past, often used playful or even seemingly random elements to address serious, sometimes traumatic themes. The "bones," stark and simple, are suspended – mobile, yes, but also suggesting fragility, precarity. What historical resonances might this evoke for you? Editor: Well, bones can obviously symbolize death and decay, but a mobile feels so light and airy. Was he playing with the weight of history? Curator: Exactly! He's inviting us to confront difficult topics—mortality, the aftermath of war, perhaps—without the solemnity that often accompanies them. He uses a kind of dark humour. The vibrant, almost fauvist colours behind the stark "bones" are there to catch us off guard. But is there anything else here in terms of formal artistic theory? Editor: It looks like Neo-Expressionism and maybe a touch of Pop Art as well, is that accurate? Curator: Yes, and even hints of graffiti art's rawness. Polke rejected art-historical orthodoxies and traditional hierarchies. Think about the art world at this time, in 1981; he's breaking all those assumptions, to use his art as a way to engage the big questions. He wanted us to question everything, including what art *should* be. What are you taking away from our discussion? Editor: That Polke wasn’t just creating something aesthetically interesting, but was actively challenging viewers to consider uncomfortable truths through a provocative, almost subversive approach. Thanks! Curator: Indeed. His art invites us to constantly re-evaluate how we understand history and its continued impact on our present.