Watchtower with Geese (Hochsitz mit Gänsen)

Sigmar Polke was born in Silesia (present-day Poland), which became part of East Germany after World War II. He moved to West Germany in the 1960s, becoming one of a number of German artists who sought to confront the collective trauma that characterized the history of their nation in the 20th century. The watchtower referred to in the title may indicate a type of elevated seat frequently used in the German countryside as a lookout when hunting fowl, a reference underscored by a gaggle of geese in the painting’s right-hand corner. The designs on the black fabric evoke the pleasures of leisure time at a beach and provide an association with another kind of raised chair, that of a lifeguard. But, more ominously, the watchtower is also related to guard towers, prisons, concentration camps, and walled countries.