A fascinating species of exhibition is the present-day show that pays tribute to a past show. The artist Sigmar Polke, who died in 2010 and would have been 80 this year, received his first museum retrospective, titled “When Pictures Vanish,” in the late 1990s. This exhibition nods to that one. Polke was born in 1941 in Lower Silesia, a region that expelled Germans after W.W. II., and he consequently grew up in Germany. Known for experiment in many media, Polke was particularly revered for his photography, which moved through distinct periods such as “Polkography” and “Polkchemistry.” This exhibition features 50 works—shimmering, virtuosic, mysterious—by the internationally influential Polke. —E.C.

Sigmar Polke: Photographs, 1964–1990
Sies + Höke
Poststraße 2/3, 40213 Düsseldorf, Germany
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