German painter Sigmar Polke rose to prominence in the 1960s alongside peers Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg as part of a movement they christened “Capitalist Realism.” Happening around the same time as the Pop art movement in the United States, Capitalist Realism emphasized more incisive political commentary than its American counterpart. Like Pop, Polke’s early works focused on consumer goods and advertising culture, but without the flashy sheen. His paintings of sausages and chocolate—prized commodities in postwar Germany—are darkly humorous, flat, and expressionless, as though one is seeing enlarged and slightly skewed newspaper ads rendered by hand. Two of his paintings from this era, Schokoladenbild (Chocolate Painting), 1964, and Der Wurstesser (The Sausage Eater), 1963, are part of Glenstone’s collection.

–Carly Davis, from the Glenstone Field Guide