Environmental Humanities Center Amsterdam

‘Troubling Pigments (after Polke)’ is a new research project by Dr. Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou, funded by the Anna Polke Stiftung. 

Oscar Mallitte, Cutting Indigo plant in the field and Loading Carts, 1877, courtesy The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

It explores the ecological, colonial, and social histories of pigments. The starting point is the eight pigments used in Polke’s eight monochrome paintings of the ‘Farbtafeln’ (1986–1992), part of the collection of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The project brings together Rijksakademie alumni Fransisca Angela, Juan Arturo García and Müge Yilmaz, and is initiated by Dr. Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou (curator, lecturer and researcher, art history & environmental humanities, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). Together they examine pigments as part of larger stories of trade, illness, colonialism, and environmental violence, which will culminate in a public presentation at the Rijksakademie in June.