Imi Knoebel

Collection of the artist
Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Vienna

Colours: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is wear in each corner, with some minor losses adjacent to this along each extreme edge. There are several small patches of black paint which have developed a sheen to the surface: one in the top left corner; two in the top right corner; one in the centre of the lower left quadrant and one to the centre of the lower right quadrant. There are four faint parallel rub marks leading horizontally across the composition from the lower right corner (approximately 30cm in length) and a small 2cm scratch above this to the extreme right edge. There is a further tiny scratch beneath the top edge, approximately 20cm in from the upper right corner. Upon close inspection, there are scattered minute specks of loss to the black paint in places throughout revealing tiny white specks of the under layer beneath. There is a small patch of discolouration approximately 30cm in from the centre of the right hand edge. There are two tiny crescent indentations to the centre of the upper right quadrant with associated minute craquelure. There is no retouching apparent when examined under ultra-violet.
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Knoebel's black and white "Line Paintings" were created during the period 1966-1968 when the artist was at the Dusseldorf Kunstakademie studying under Joseph Beuys. These paintings are considered to be crucially important in Knoebel's development and have been described by Roland Waespe of the Kunstmusem, St.Gallen, Switzerland, on the occasion of an exhibition of 50 never-before-shown line paintings in 1996, as the artist's "first convincing group of work".  The exhibition was described in Art in America that year as "world-class". Most of the "Line Paintings" consist of rows or grids of filaments drawn with a ruling pen and black distemper wall paint on white-primed linen mounted on fiberboard and stretchers, however the present work belongs to a smaller group that are ruled white on a black priming. Showing a precocious playfulness, Knoebel's monochrome works explore many of the elements relevant in painting at that time: line, surface, objectness, and optical effect, but there also exists a strong reference to Knoebel's interest in light projections, a discipline which he engaged with some interest during his time at Dusseldorf.  In particular, the present work produces a strong optical effect of colour generation upon close viewing, mimicking a projected element to the painted surface.  These early works divulge Knoebel's vision of painting's endgame as an opening, not a closing - a beginning of a new game.