Imi Knoebel

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Imi Knoebel, born Klaus Wolf Knoebel in 1940 in Dessau, Germany, is a German artist known for minimalist, abstract painting and sculpture. He often uses a technique he calls “Messerschnitt” (knife cuts) and works with primary colors—red, yellow and blue. He lives and works in Düsseldorf.

Education and influences: From 1962 to 1964, Knoebel studied at the Darmstadt Werkkunstschule, where ideas from the pre-Bauhaus era influenced him. From 1964 to 1971, he studied with Joseph Beuys at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, sharing a studio with Blinky Palermo. Knoebel’s art explores how space, the support for a work, and color relate to each other, and his work is linked to high modernism and the Bauhaus.

Key works and series: Between 1966 and 1969, he created the Linienbilder, a series of 90 line paintings. He also produced a huge set of line drawings on DIN A4 sheets from 1969 to 1973/75. In 1968, Knoebel made Raum 19, an installation with wooden and Masonite pieces; a second version was made in 1992 for the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt.

Photography: Starting in 1968, Knoebel used photography as an artistic medium. His Innenprojektionen used empty slide projections to cast light into rooms, later documented as large grids of photographs. He also made Projection X (1970–71) and Projektion X Remake (2005), video works based on outdoor light projections.

Color and materials: From the mid-1970s, Knoebel began using color on layered plywood boards and metal plates. He has worked on Mennigebilder (Red Lead Pictures) since 1975, using Mennige Paint. After 1977 his works included more color. In the 1980s he developed gesture-based color on geometric forms, including portraits made from vertical and horizontal rectangles. He also created 24 colorful monochromes as a tribute to his friend Blinky Palermo; this series was acquired by Dia Art Foundation and shown at Dia:Beacon in 2008.

Public commissions and later projects: In 1997 the German Bundestag commissioned Rot Gelb Weiß Blau 1–4 for an office building. In 2011, six stained-glass panes by Knoebel were unveiled in the apse of Reims Cathedral, alongside Chagall’s stained glass.

Kinderstern: Since 1988, Knoebel has led Kinderstern, a social sculpture promoting children’s rights. All proceeds go to children in need.

Reims Cathedral windows: After bombing damage, Knoebel designed three new stained-glass windows for Reims Cathedral. He did not take payment; the project cost €900,000 and was funded by the German Foreign Ministry, with a presentation in 2015.

Exhibitions and recognition: Knoebel’s first show, IMI + IMI, happened in 1968 in Copenhagen. He has appeared in documenta 5–8 and Sonsbeek (1971). A 1996 retrospective at Haus der Kunst in Munich traveled to major European museums. In 2009, a major retrospective at Hamburger Bahnhof and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin focused on monumental works and gestural white painting near the building’s glass walls.

Collections and representation: Knoebel’s works are held in many major museums worldwide, including Dia:Beacon, MoMA, FRAC, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Essl Museum, the Albertina, the Berardo Collection, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, and Malmö Konsthall. Since 1984, Deutsche Bank Collection has acquired more than 1,000 works on paper. He is represented by several galleries around the world. In 2016, his work Grace Kelly (1989) sold for £365,000 at Christie’s in London.