Palazzo Grassi will host the first major personal exhibition in Italy dedicated to German artist Sigmar Polke (1941-2010).

The exhibition was conceived by Elena Geuna and Guy Tosatto, Director of the Musée de Grenoble, in collaboration with The Estate of Sigmar Polke. The show spans the artist’s entire career, from the 1960s to 2000s, and underlines the variety of his techniques. Nearly ninety works from the Pinault Collection, as well as loans from major public and private collections, will be on display.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the artist’s birth and the 30th anniversary of his participation to the 1986 Venice Biennale, where he was awarded the Golden Lion. Sigmar Polke holds a special place in the Pinault Collection: already presented in four of the exhibitions at Palazzo Grassi-Punta della Dogana, the artist is now given the place of honour with a retrospective on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the reopening of Palazzo Grassi.

The visitors will be welcomed in the atrium of Palazzo Grassi by the monumental work Axial Age (2005-2007), which became part of the Pinault Collection after its presentation at the Venice Biennale in 2007. Sigmar Polke himself supervised the installation of the work in 2009 at Punta della Dogana on the occasion of the museum’s inaugural exhibition, “Mapping the Studio”. The entire space of Palazzo Grassi will be dedicated to the retrospective of Sigmar Polke and will present works of different formats and techniques – painting, drawing, installation, films.