Imi Knoebel Biography
Imi Knoebel, pseudonym of Klaus Wolf Knoebel (1940 - ), born in Dessau, is a German painter who lives and works in Düsseldorf.
At the beginning of the 1960s he attended the Werkkunstschule Darmstadt, taking part in a course held by professor László Moholy-Nagy. Knoebel then also studied under the guidance of Joseph Beuys at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, whose teachings showed him the way to his first important work, Raum 19 (1968). Influenced by the work of artists such as Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian, Knoebel's abstract art addresses the foundations of painting and sculpture, through the use of clear, distinct geometric forms and through the exploration of shapes, colors and materials. In fact, he produces a wide variety of works, ranging from monochrome paintings to sculptures in wood and metal, up to installations and masonry works.
His work will be exhibited not only in personal museum exhibitions but also in the collective exhibitions of documenta 5 (1972), 6 (1977) and 7 (1982).
It was the exhibition "Zeichen, Flächen, Körper", in which he participated in 1976 together with American minimalist artists such as Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly, that would establish his fame.
His works can be found in some of the most important private and public collections around the world, and have been exhibited in several solo exhibitions such as at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2009); Dia:Beacon, New York (2008).1
