Watchtower

1977–1991

Professor at the Hamburg Academy

From 1977 to 1991 Polke was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg; his students included Georg Herold.

1980s

Back to painting: chemistry and chance

Returning to painting in the 1980s, Polke mixed pigments with solvents, varnishes, toxins and resins to provoke spontaneous chemical reactions; he soaked fabric in resin to make it transparent and left the composition to the colours themselves, tilting the canvas.

1982

First solo show in New York

In 1982 the Holly Solomon Gallery in SoHo held Polke's first solo exhibition in New York, of paintings made at least a decade earlier.

1982年6月19日–1982年9月28日

Exhibition: documenta 7

1984 · 受賞

Lichtwark Prize

1986

The Golden Lion at Venice for “The Alchemist's Cauldron”

In the German pavilion at the 42nd Venice Biennale Polke painted an abstract composition on the wall in a special mixture whose colours changed with the light, weather, humidity and the number of visitors: a full room turned the wall blue, gathering clouds turned it pink. For “The Alchemist's Cauldron” the jury gave him the Golden Lion for painting, shared with Frank Auerbach.