Für den Dritten Stand bleiben nur noch die Krümel

Juxtaposed with shapeless green, yellow and red stripes, graphic patterns reproduced using an extremely enlarged printing screen multiply and spin on the saturated surface of the canvas. Jumbled up with other abstractions, several times they depict the same headless body in a jacket holding a basket in one hand and with the other hand sweeping away what seem to be the crumbs mentioned in the title, paying homage to French Revolutionary History.

This large scale work entitled Für den dritten Stand bleiben nur noch die Krümel (For the Third Rank, There Are Only Crumbs) is part of the hybrid and polyphonic practice developed by the painter Sigmar Polke. This is evidenced by the unusual choice of materials and media (artificial resin, polyester canvas), as well as the play on superimposition to the point of saturation with figurative and abstract patterns. The sign in this canvas, like all of Polke’s work, loses its prevalence in favour of infinite visual and formal experiments.

The work Für den dritten Stand bleiben nur noch die Krümel (For the Third Rank, There Are Only Crumbs) was presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection during the 2016 retrospective exhibition “Sigmar Polke” at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice.