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Sigma Polke (141-2010) is one of the most influential surviving artists in the contemporary art world, who has worked in the turbulent modern history of Germany. Born in East Germany, Polke moved to Düsseldorf, West Germany, at the age of 12, and studied at Staatliche Kunstakademie from 1961 to 1967.

Here, he has learned a variety of things from commercial images to social philosophy theory, and based on this learning, he has developed a unique world of works in which cynical and socially critical messages and cheerful wit are combined, and high-end art motifs are expressed with unrefined industrial materials.

In 1963, while attending an art school, Polke began his full-fledged work with Gerhard Richter and Konrad Fischer by advocating Capitalist Realism, which criticizes German consumer culture. And he continued to expand his work area by introducing new ideas, expression tools and techniques.

In the 1960s, images were mainly borrowed from mass media such as newspapers and magazines to produce pop art-related conceptual paintings criticizing German consumer society, and in the 1970s, he devoted himself to photography. Since the 1980s, it has returned to painting, showing experimental work using metal powder or chemicals instead of paint, covering a wider range of political and historical events such as the Cold War system in East and West Germany as well as daily life.