In an article in the Tate Etc, in 2014, Peter Doig talks
to Mark Godfrey about Sigmar Polke and mentions how the German Artist has
influenced his approach to source material for his work. Doig refers to an
exhibition, A New Spirit in Painting
from 1981, that was held at the Royal Academy, a show that was very influential
in forming Doig's methodology:
"I felt much more connected to Polke because of his
use of popular imagery in a kind of witty irreverent way, and that he was
prepared to use all types of visual language in his own work, unlike Richter
who would be painting paintings that looked like photographs." (page 59)
 |
| Still from one of Polke's 16mm Films |
Doig talks about his first experiences of seeing Polke's
16mm films first shown in Hamburg, some of which were appearing in the
exhibition at the Tate:
"I was surprised by the way the camera operated like
an eye examining everything in an almost uncomfortable voyeuristic fashion,
details of faces, watching people."
Doig is acknowledging the use of film as a tool to
examine and gather material and how it surprised him. Potential this may have
been in an unsettling way based upon the content of the film, that showed bear-baiting
in Afghanistan. But he goes on to say in the interview that he doesn't feel
Polke used this, or such, footage in his work rather that the source material
for Polke's later work was from contemporary newspapers, magazines and the
internet.
Doig doesn't talk of this range of eclectic source
material disparagingly. In fact he seems engaged by this use of media and his
exposure to this at an important stage of his development, as a painter, will
have shored up his own ideas of where he gathered his own inspirations.
Bibliography
FISCHIL, P. & DOIG, P. & GODFREY,
M. A Contemporary Visionary, Tate
Etc. Issue 32 Autumn 2014, Tate Media, UK
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