And into his own hands this picture went. Sigmar Polke (1941–2010) is widely recognized for making an art from all that is unknowable, building images from gathered fragments, and delighting in the illusionary universe of these constructions.
In Unser Kundendienst! (“Our customer service!”) (1985), it is the artist whose gloved hands grip the canvas, flashing its emblazoned message: “When you buy a new mattress, we’ll take the old one to the trash.” But for this painting to actually wind up in the garbage bin would be a nearly impossible event. To Polke the art world’s tendency towards excess was predicated on the consumption of the new and the disposal of the unsalable; he holds up Unser Kundendienst! to remind the viewer of this irrefutable fact.