(born in Dessau in 1940)
N. I. P.-I, 2009, signed and dated on the reverse, acrylic on aluminium, 90 x 90 x 11.8 cm

Provenance:
Giacomo Guidi Arte Contemporanea, Rome
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
Rome, Imi Knoebel Der Deutsche, Giacomo Guidi Arte Contemporanea, Rome, 13 April-12 June 2010, exh. cat. pp. 32–33 with ill.

Knoebel constantly thinks about colour, which is why a kind of cataloguing syndrome is recognisable in his actions, i.e. the foundationally utopian attempt to construct all possible combinations of colours and surfaces. This is very much part of the discussion around Modernity, the idea of the project, and the concept of becoming aware of one's own actions. This is characteristic of this moment in contemporary art, which is linked to 'verification', and the ability to minutely analyse and break down the moments and changes of a great creation. It is no coincidence that Knoebel is the first to reference and repeatedly revisit Kazimir Malevich. The Russian Suprematist and Constructivist’s characteristic black or white square is deconstructed into its minimal components by Knoebel - horizontal and vertical lines plus surface - and then reconstructed.

But if Imi Knoebel's analytical - perhaps psychoanalytic - action on both himself and his own art belongs to that project oriented side of contemporary art, which proceeds point by point, which learns to write - or rather draw, in this case - literally by tracing lines on the surface [...], the next step must necessarily contradict it. Thus, the spectrum of possibilities within which the artist moves ranges from an almost pedantic design to the choice of an expressive variety that challenges that very systematic and didactic approach: constructions that are extremely consistent with the initial choice are counterbalanced by seemingly anarchic explosions of forms, accumulations, and colour compositions.
(M. Meneguzzo in Imi Knoebel Der Deutsche, Rome 2010, pp. 12-14)