Imi Knoebel - Figurenbild - image-1

Lot 716 D

Imi Knoebel - Figurenbild

Auction 1032 - overview Cologne
31.05.2014, 11:00 - Contemporary Art
Estimate: 40.000 € - 60.000 €
Result: 48.800 € (incl. premium)

Imi Knoebel

Figurenbild
1989

Acrylic on panel. 250 x 170 x 9 cm. Verso on the panel signed and dated 'IMI 89'.

Imi Knoebel, one of the most important German representatives of Post-Minimal Art, causes the boundary between painting and object to become blurred. Abandoning frames and the use of solid wood panels instead of a canvas surface bestows an object-like character upon his works, as is the case with the present “Figurenbild”, and is conducive to the interaction between the artwork and the surrounding space: “The painting no longer dominates the wall as a subordinate hanging space but, together with the space, creates an ideal place yet to be discovered. The room as a whole becomes a painting which the observer actually enters. The paintings on the walls, seem - symbolically speaking - like half open or closed doors that may be opened up to access further rooms.” (Eugen Blume, Imi Knoebel, in: The Schaufler Foundation i.a. (eds.), Imi Knoebel, Werke aus der Sammlung Schaufler, exhib.cat. Schauwerk Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen 2011, p.24) One of Knoebel's further creative tools is the use of expressive yet puristic colourfulness, which lends central importance to the monumental impact of his works. With the present “Figurenbild”, for instance, the formal austerity finds its counterpart in the reduction to three colour variants which - although initially clearly separated - are however interrelated. The static of the composition and the dynamic of the colour shades enter a convincing relationship of tension.

Provenance

Galerie Hans Strelow, Düsseldorf; private collection, Rhineland

Literature

Cf. Marja Bloem, Hubertus Gaßner (ed.), Imi Knoebel, Retrospektive 1968-1996, exhib.cat. Haus der Kunst, Munich, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam et al., Ostfildern 1996, p.123 and 306