Imi Knoebel

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Imi Knoebel (pseudonym for Klaus Wolf Knoebel , born December 31, 1940 in Dessau ) is a German painter and sculptor of Minimal Art .

life and work

Knoebel spent his childhood near Dresden and moved with the family to Mainz in 1950 . From 1962 to 1964 he attended the Werkkunstschule Darmstadt with Imi Giese (1942–1974) , where he learned constructive and structural composition exercises based on ideas from the Bauhaus preliminary course by Johannes Itten and László Moholy-Nagy . In 1964, together with Giese, he moved to the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the commercial graphics class of Walter Breker . From 1965 onwards, both Imis - like his friend Rainer Giese, Knoebel took the first name Imi ("Imi + Imi") - were admitted to the Beuys class in room 20 through an extravagant appearance , although at times they were together with Jörg Immendorff and Blinky Palermo , occupied the neighboring room 19.

Joseph Beuys propagated the radical change in the concept of art and society. Knoebel dealt with the liberation of art from any content and function. At first Knoebel created black and white line paintings (1966–1968). Under the influence of Kasimir Malewitsch and his " Black Square ", two-dimensional sculptures were created from stacked panels (e.g. Sandwich I and Sandwich II , Pinakothek der Moderne , Munich) or from brightly painted aluminum slats and panels that partially overlap each other, with patterns similar to those of Piet Mondrian (e.g. INNINN, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich).

Knoebel's reduction shows itself in a concentration of the artistic form and the material. The result was an arsenal of stretcher frames and geometric shapes made of fibreboard: cubes, arched elements, circular segments or rectangles, which together form a basic spatial vocabulary that works by itself and the structure of which visitors should perceive and experience sensually: cuboids are sometimes meters high in the room , lean flat against the wall or hang as monochrome "panel pictures".

The first installation “Raum 19”, created in 1968, is located in the Dia Center, New York. In 1992 Knoebel created a second version for the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt for the immediate vicinity of Joseph Beuys " Block Beuys ", so that pupils (Knoebel) and teachers (Beuys) are as close as they were at university.

From 1968 onwards, Knoebel used photography as an artistic medium. Using slides, he projected light fields onto walls and photographed the rooms that were rhythmic with light. In 1970 he projected an x-shaped beam of light onto buildings while driving through Darmstadt at night . The extensive slide and photo series of "Projection X" are in the collection of the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt .

With Giese and Blinky Palermo (pseudonym for Peter Heisterkamp) he forms a minimal art trend among the Beuys students - in contrast to other Beuys students of the same time as Jörg Immendorff, who turned to agitprop art. In the early 1970s he was a regular visitor to the trendy Ratinger Hof meeting point in Düsseldorf's old town , which Carmen Knoebel ran together with Ingrid Kohlhöfer ( Christof Kohlhöfer's wife ).

Today Knoebel lives and works as a freelance artist in Düsseldorf.

Political and social engagement

In 1982 Imi Knoebel got involved with Georg Baselitz , Joseph Beuys , Walter Dahn , Jörg Immendorff, Rune Mields , Gerhard Richter , Katharina Sieverding , Thomas Schütte , Günther Uecker and Franz Erhard Walther “Against Martial Law in Poland - for Solidarność ”. The works previously exhibited in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf were auctioned for the benefit of Solidarność on November 13, 1982. In 1988 Imi Knoebel created the Kinderstern , a work of art that continues to campaign for children's rights by financing projects for children in need. Johannes Stüttgen formulates the intention of the children's star as follows: “Just as real art cannot be a mere glossing over and decoration of the prevailing grievances, which incidentally affect the children worst, the children's star is not some charitable idea that just wants to iron out everything wreaked havoc on behalf of the world's ruling systems. "

Awards and orders

Exhibitions (selection)

Works

See also

literature

  • Imi Knoebel: Imi Knoebel: pure joy . Akira Ikeda Gallery, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86531-104-0 .
  • Martin Schulz: Imi Knoebel, The tradition of the non-representational image . Schreiber, Munich 1998 (diss.)
  • State Gallery of Modern Art Munich (ed.): A tour of the collection. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1987, p. 231 f.
  • Franz-Joachim Verspohl : Pictor Laureate. In honor of Imi Knoebel. Works from 1966 to 2006 , Verlag der Buchhandlung König, Cologne 2006, ISBN 978-3-8656-0096-7 .
  • Holger Broeker: Imi Knoebel. Works 1966–2014 , Kerber, Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-7356-0002-8 .
  • La Drac (Direction régionale des affaires culturelles Champagne-Ardenne) (Ed.): Imi Knoebel. Stained glass window for Reims Cathedral , Kerber, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-86678-501-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Art 19th - 21st century - Hessisches Landesmuseum. Retrieved January 22, 2019 .
  2. ^ Polish Institute
  3. ↑ Child star (manifest)
  4. ↑ Imi Knoebel - Window of Reconciliation ( Memento from June 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Création de vitraux à la cathédrale de Reims. La commande publique à Imi Knoebel ( Memento from June 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Knoebel windows in Reims Cathedral are inaugurated ( Memento from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Report from the Evangelical Press Service
  7. ↑ Christiane Habermalz: Reims Cathedral - Window of Reconciliation. deutschlandradiokultur.de, May 11, 2015, accessed on May 12, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Order "des Arts et des Lettres" for Imi Knoebel , accessed on February 10, 2019.
  9. ↑ Notice on the exhibition , accessed on July 30, 2014.
  10. ↑ Information text about the exhibition on the museum's website. Archived from the original on September 11, 2014 ; accessed on September 10, 2014 .
  11. ↑ BILD on Germany's most shy artist in BILD from October 21, 2014, page 6
personal data
SURNAME Knoebel, Imi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Knoebel, Klaus Wolf (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Dessau