Sigmar Polke - A Life Forged in Displacement: The Early Years and Artistic Formation of Sigmar Polke Sigmar Polke’s artistic journey was profoundly shaped by the tumultuous currents of 20th-century history, beginning with his birth in Olsztyn, Poland, in 1941. His early life was marked by displacement; as a child, he fled with his family first to Thuringia and then, seeking refuge from Communist rule, to West Germany in 1953. This exp…