Lot No. 235 -


Imi Knoebel *


(born in Dessau 1940)
Ich Nicht XI, 2006, monogrammed, dated, inscribed on the reverse of Part C IMI 2.16, acrylic on aluminum and acrylic on plastic sheet, 317.5 x 373 x 8.4 cm

Provenance:
Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon
European Private Collection
Phillips, London, 8. March 2019, lot 155 

Exhibited:
Lisbon, Galeria Filomena Soares, Imi Knoebel,
9. November – 31. December 2006

Imi Knoebel used only red, blue and yellow in his work
"Ich Nicht XI", the three colours forming rectangular, closed surfaces on the canvas. This uniformity is interrupted by the diverse application of paint; we see delicate brushstrokes of varying textures, sometimes dense and sometimes more opaque.

The work, which measures over three by four metres, consists of a total of nine rectangles of different sizes, each filled with one colour. In the upper part of the picture, three red areas flank three adjacent yellow fields characterised by different applications of colour. Below them are three areas of different widths that take up about two-thirds of the picture’s surface. On the far left is a red space that looms over the similar bright red rectangles on the left edge; the image then expands into two large blue areas.
The primary colours red, blue and yellow are infinite and wide-ranging. “They have endless variations, classical and yet never ‘not modern’, utmost concentration and condensation in one work, while at the same time all other possibilities are present, simplicity that must be found again and again, and complexity that cannot be mastered.”1 The colour formations are subject to a classical principle of order, which clearly opposes a supposed chaos that has sprung from an arbitrary use and application of colour. “A new order, another order that offers a different and freer vision; a vision that is not least a self-responsible and self-knowing one [...].” 2
The title “Ich Nicht XI” also encourages the viewer to look at the painting unencumbered. It is a statement that seems as though it was torn from a sentence - its context remains unclear at first. Is it an invitation to the recipient? Or is it an invitation to explore the work independently and to internalise it individually? There is no binding explanation. “We are not told what to see, we experience it with our own eyes, with our own bodies and soul, with our own history and cultures.”3
Imi Knoebel, born in 1940 as Klaus Wolf Knoebel in Dessau, studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts under Josef Beuys in the 1960s, together with Imi Giese and Blinky Palermo. Another important inspiration for him was Kasimir Malevich’s black square on a white background and his idea of a pure abstraction via the exploration of form, colour and material. Fascinated by beginning at the zero point of design, he has always remained true to his minimalistic approach and to an engagement with the basic questions of non-objective painting. In his early works in particular, he was preoccupied with white and black and only began to work with powerful and luminous colours from 1974 onwards. Throughout his oeuvre, Imi Knoebel explores the relationship between colour and structure and works in series. Series such as “Ich Nicht”, which are conceived in systematic groupings, play with raw surfaces and simple materials such as hardboard and aluminium.

His works transcend traditional genre distinctions and cannot be limited to one medium. His repertoire of colours and forms is full of tension and appears at first glance to be a monochrome arrangement of coloured surfaces; however, on second glance, the viewer recognises the complexity of the colours, and Knoebel gives them a rhythmic shape.
The hybrid objects, which move between painting and sculpture, murals and room installations, are continuously in a tension with the space. It is the surrounding space in relation to the volume of the objects that reveals the aesthetic nature of the composition.

1 Imi Knoebel, Werke von 1966 bis 2006, exhib. cat., Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, 2007, p. 86
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.

Specialist: Dr. Petra Maria Schäpers Dr. Petra Maria Schäpers

petra.schaepers@dorotheum.de

23.06.2021 - 16:00

Estimate:
EUR 200,000.- to EUR 250,000.-

Imi Knoebel *


(born in Dessau 1940)
Ich Nicht XI, 2006, monogrammed, dated, inscribed on the reverse of Part C IMI 2.16, acrylic on aluminum and acrylic on plastic sheet, 317.5 x 373 x 8.4 cm

Provenance:
Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon
European Private Collection
Phillips, London, 8. March 2019, lot 155 

Exhibited:
Lisbon, Galeria Filomena Soares, Imi Knoebel,
9. November – 31. December 2006

Imi Knoebel used only red, blue and yellow in his work
"Ich Nicht XI", the three colours forming rectangular, closed surfaces on the canvas. This uniformity is interrupted by the diverse application of paint; we see delicate brushstrokes of varying textures, sometimes dense and sometimes more opaque.

The work, which measures over three by four metres, consists of a total of nine rectangles of different sizes, each filled with one colour. In the upper part of the picture, three red areas flank three adjacent yellow fields characterised by different applications of colour. Below them are three areas of different widths that take up about two-thirds of the picture’s surface. On the far left is a red space that looms over the similar bright red rectangles on the left edge; the image then expands into two large blue areas.
The primary colours red, blue and yellow are infinite and wide-ranging. “They have endless variations, classical and yet never ‘not modern’, utmost concentration and condensation in one work, while at the same time all other possibilities are present, simplicity that must be found again and again, and complexity that cannot be mastered.”1 The colour formations are subject to a classical principle of order, which clearly opposes a supposed chaos that has sprung from an arbitrary use and application of colour. “A new order, another order that offers a different and freer vision; a vision that is not least a self-responsible and self-knowing one [...].” 2
The title “Ich Nicht XI” also encourages the viewer to look at the painting unencumbered. It is a statement that seems as though it was torn from a sentence - its context remains unclear at first. Is it an invitation to the recipient? Or is it an invitation to explore the work independently and to internalise it individually? There is no binding explanation. “We are not told what to see, we experience it with our own eyes, with our own bodies and soul, with our own history and cultures.”3
Imi Knoebel, born in 1940 as Klaus Wolf Knoebel in Dessau, studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts under Josef Beuys in the 1960s, together with Imi Giese and Blinky Palermo. Another important inspiration for him was Kasimir Malevich’s black square on a white background and his idea of a pure abstraction via the exploration of form, colour and material. Fascinated by beginning at the zero point of design, he has always remained true to his minimalistic approach and to an engagement with the basic questions of non-objective painting. In his early works in particular, he was preoccupied with white and black and only began to work with powerful and luminous colours from 1974 onwards. Throughout his oeuvre, Imi Knoebel explores the relationship between colour and structure and works in series. Series such as “Ich Nicht”, which are conceived in systematic groupings, play with raw surfaces and simple materials such as hardboard and aluminium.

His works transcend traditional genre distinctions and cannot be limited to one medium. His repertoire of colours and forms is full of tension and appears at first glance to be a monochrome arrangement of coloured surfaces; however, on second glance, the viewer recognises the complexity of the colours, and Knoebel gives them a rhythmic shape.
The hybrid objects, which move between painting and sculpture, murals and room installations, are continuously in a tension with the space. It is the surrounding space in relation to the volume of the objects that reveals the aesthetic nature of the composition.

1 Imi Knoebel, Werke von 1966 bis 2006, exhib. cat., Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, 2007, p. 86
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.

Specialist: Dr. Petra Maria Schäpers Dr. Petra Maria Schäpers

petra.schaepers@dorotheum.de


Buyers hotline Mon.-Fri.: 10.00am - 5.00pm
kundendienst@dorotheum.at

+43 1 515 60 200
Auction: Contemporary Art I
Auction type: Saleroom auction with Live Bidding
Date: 23.06.2021 - 16:00
Location: Vienna | Palais Dorotheum
Exhibition: 17.06. - 23.06.2021