Hope is: Wanting to Pull Clouds

Sigmar Polke (1941-2010) was a German painter known for the ironic, experimental manner that makes him one of the most important painters of the post-war European art tradition. Hope is: Wanting to Pull Clouds from 1992 is one of Polke's most important late works, combining the ironic, experimental manner that distinguishes his best work from the more straightforward painting of his contemporaries. The 1992 date places this in Polke's most productive late period, when he was producing the experimental mixed-media works that are his most accomplished works, and the title—with its combination of hope and the impossibility of pulling clouds—is characteristic of Polke's ironic, philosophical approach to art-making.

Hope is: Wanting to Pull Clouds is important in the history of post-war European art because it demonstrates the ironic, experimental manner that Polke brought to painting as one of the most important painters of the post-war European tradition. Polke's ironic, experimental approach—questioning the conventions of painting through the use of unconventional materials and ironic titles—represents one of the most important developments in post-war European art, and the 1992 work shows this development at its most philosophical and accomplished.

Hope is: Wanting to Pull Clouds is Polke's ironic, philosophical art-making: the title itself—with its combination of hope and impossibility—is characteristic of one of the most important painters of post-war European art. The 1992 work shows the experimental mixed-media approach that questioned the conventions of painting through irony and philosophical depth.