Lot 1 D

In the work series “Odyshape”, Imi Knoebel addresses the motif of concealment in a particularly impressive manner - a theme that is frequently present in his oeuvre. In the wall installations of coloured aluminium, variously coloured strips of the metal are concealed behind a large-scale square on several superimposed levels. Not all the stripes reach the edges, inevitably generating in the viewer the wish to see behind the frontal surface to uncover the concealed layers. The circumnavigation of the three-dimensional artwork hanging flat on the wall is intended by the artist; he allows form, colour and space to interact with each other. The secretive concealment is played here not only as an optical phenomenon, but as something physically tangible.
Knoebel restricts the work series to the primary colours of yellow, red, white and blue. With this colouring and the simplicity of the geometric forms, he employs the artistic means of expression of his role models Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malewitsch and transposes them into a new tension-filled correlation through the three-dimensionality of his installations.