Imi Knoebel invoked his first impression of art: The Black Square from the pioneer of constructivism Kasimir Malewitsch and so he tried to deal with the square in an artistic way. Inside the square footage, he investigated the black color, the white color and the lines – and thereby he pointed out the unreachable and the most ordinary at the same time. Under the influence of Malewitsch and his “Black Square” Knoebel’s two-dimensional sculptures came into being. They were made out of sheets and colored aluminum, which built layers and thus created patterns. In the exhibited folder you can see some of the form designs – and Knoebel’s research about different shapes.



Frame (each framed)

Profil 2, white varnished, 60/80

Whitecap, museum cardboard

ArtCare 3mm Foamboard white

glass

hanging both-sided



The portfolio Schwules Bild (Gay Picture) consists of eight prints. They are based on a group of paintings (acrylic on wood, each approximately 200 x 150 cm) of the same name, which the artist produced in 1976. This original, eight-part work was presented to art-viewing audiences for the very first time in the exhibition “IMI KNOEBEL – Works 1966–2014” at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg

(October 25, 2014–February 15, 2015).

Schwules Bild marks Imi Knoebel’s first step into the fragmentation of form and color, a quality which would make the artist’s later work so pioneering.

That the series is of such central importance within Knoebel’s work becomes clear when one thinks of the more internationally well-known series 24 Farben für Blinky (24 Colors for Blinky), which is in the collection of the renowned Dia Art Foundation, NY. Like Schwules Bild, this work also consists of monumental monochrome colors, forms cut out of wood panels that have been individually mounted on the wall.