Sigmar Polke

Fernsehbild (Kicker) was the first edition Polke produced as a commission for the graphic art center Griffelkunst-Vereinigung Hamburg-Langenhorn. The series that resulted from this collaboration is thought to exemplify Polke’s way of continually stretching the limits of reproduction techniques. He allowed, for instance, more and more leeway for the factor of chance – with which he later also experimented in his paintings. With such experiments he contributed to the innovation of postwar graphic art.

For Fernsehbild (Kicker) Polke took a detail from a blurry photograph of a television image showing a game of table football, which he crumpled up, smoothed out and then photographed again. Due to the deliberate introduction of classic misprints such as creases and folds, he flouted all the rules of graphic art. The resulting contradictions led to friction; this was a conscious attempt to shock conservative members of the Griffelkunst association.