polity west germanyconcept:era contemporary
Supermarkets
Mixed media on canvas (1976) by Sigmar Polke. Applies newsprint raster dot patterns (Rasterbilder technique) to supermarket and consumer goods imagery, producing an image that simultaneously resembles newspaper reproduction and undermines the apparent 'neutrality' of commodity representation.
Scholarly Significance
Polke's Supermarkets (1976) is a key example of his Rasterbilder technique applying Benday dot patterns to consumer-culture imagery.
Notes
- ·Part of Polke's ongoing Rasterbilder (raster picture) series, which began c.1963.
- ·The raster dot (halftone) pattern references the process of mechanical reproduction — newspapers, advertising, billboards.
- ·By using newsprint-dot patterns to depict consumer goods, Polke equates supermarket commodities with media images: both are products of mechanical reproduction and both are ideologically saturated.
- ·The technique parallels Roy Lichtenstein's use of Benday dots in American Pop Art, but Polke's approach is more ironic and less celebratory.
- ·Polke often used multiple unstable media on a single canvas, creating works that visibly degrade or change over time — a deliberate commentary on impermanence.
- ·Note: provenance for specific 1976 versions requires further documentation.