Verborgene Horizonte in Philip Taaffes "Polis." Zum Wandel tradierter Elemente politischer Ikonographie in der Malerei des 20. Jahrhunderts
A study of the iconography of American painter Philip Taaffe's 1996 mixed-media painting Polis (The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica, California). This work was exhibited along with the artist's paintings Imaginary City and Megalopolis at Wiener Secession, Vienna, in winter 1996–97. Like in the other works, its title points to the city and therefore to an expression of the political community. Its ornamental basic concept makes it possible to capture a broad, intercultural, and cross-epochal curve; to quietly establish new tensions without dissolving them; and to configure the space of reflection thus opened up so that the connection to the aesthetic and political tradition is preserved while breaking new ground.