Sigmar Polke (born 1941) is a German artist. His family escaped from the Communist regime in East Germany in 1953. Upon his arrival in West Germany, Polke began to spend time in galleries and museums and worked as an apprentice in a stained glass factory before entering the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie (Art School) at age twenty. There he made paintings that incorporated photographs on the canvas. Upon graduation in 1968, he published a portfolio of fourteen photographs made with a borrowed camera depicting his tabletop sculptures and his performances. Over the next four years, he made thousands of photographs that were never printed and several films that were never edited, both for lack of money. Self-taught in photography, Polke experimented with chemical developers and fixers, incorporating mistakes and elements of chance into his finished work.

Polke embarked on a series of world travels throughout the 1970s, photographing in Paris, New York, Afghanistan, and Brazil. He also intermittently taught art in Germany from 1970 to 1978; he then settled in Cologne, where he continues to live and work.