Imi Knoebel
Recent Works
De Brock is pleased to present its fourth solo exhibition with Imi Knoebel, opening on August 3rd.
Knoebel is one of the most prominent pioneers of post-war German art, dedicated to looking to and learning from modern art history in order to create a uniquely contemporary visual vocabulary. Achieving early success during his time studying under Joseph Beuys at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, where the artist continues to live and work, Knoebel’s pioneering installation Raum 19 (1968, currently in the Dia Beacon’s permanent collection) consisted of one hundred eighty-four primitive wood and fibreboard sculptural forms, an ensemble able to be assembled in any manner he saw fit. The masterwork marked a formative moment in a career spent questioning the idea and ideals of non-representational art, a preconception of the artist since his introductory encounter with Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square (1915).
Knoebel’s invariably abstract, repeatedly minimal and often monochromatic painting practice has historically relied upon a strict limitation of form and a resolute grasp of colour. Employing plywood or metal panels as his base ground, the artist explores and exposes the relationship between paint and material, whilst perennially pushing the physical properties of both. Since the 1990’s he has adopted cut-out sheet aluminium as his primary painting support, coinciding with the introduction of a broader colour palette; thick, almost impasto acrylic; and looser, visible brushstrokes. For his latest solo exhibition at De Brock, the artist presents examples from three recent series of work, all developed since 2020 and all demonstrating Knoebel’s unwavering approach to experimentation.
The Archetype series was originally inspired by a newspaper cutting of the Venus of Hohle Fels, a palaeolithic period female figurine carved from mammoth ivory. Discovered in Germany in 2008, it is dated to between 40,000 to 42,000 years old, making it the world’s earliest depiction of the human form. In his signature shaped aluminium panels, Knoebel imitates the figures’ fertile silhouette in an effort to evoke the ‘eternal feminine’, a transcendental concept celebrated world-wide. Elsewhere, the artist’s latest series etcetera reintroduces a language of gestural, hatched brushstrokes and geometric shapes reminiscent of earlier work. With monochromatic backgrounds exposing areas of unprimed aluminium negative space and an irregularity evidenced in the horizontal and vertical lines that mark their surface, these new paintings reveal the inherent restrictions of geometric order.
Similarly, the Love Child body of paintings on asymmetrical sheets of aluminium and copper builds upon Knoebel’s earlier series Bastards, featuring kindred panels completely covered in gold leaf. Stating “I wanted to make them as simple as possible’, each single-coloured artwork hangs from an oversized nail that pierces the painting, recalling paper pinned to a noticeboard. Finally, an example of the artist’s Once Upon A Time paintings, ironically conceived during the debut staging of the Love Child series, features a variety of abstract forms appearing on its surface marked by areas of lighter or darker colour, another reminder of Knoebel’s adherence to Malevich’s intention of non-objective images.
The opening reception will be held in presence of the artist from 6 till 8 pm, please email us for more information.
