Artwork of the month August

IMI Giese, 3 Quader, 1968


IMI Giese

*1942 in Neheim-Hüsten, †1974 in Düsseldorf



3 Quader, 1968



Pressboards, hardboards, graphite, 3-part

Each 60x110x110, with a 110cm interval between each element

IMI Giese's artwork arose in the historical situation of a seemingly uncompromising and new beginning for art, linked to access to a whole new range of possibilities. A major center for this fresh departure was Düsseldorf, where, since the early 1960s, Fluxus concerts and Joseph Beuys actions burst the framework of a traditional definition of art.

In 1964, together with Wolf Knoebel, Rainer Giese arrived at the Art Academy, there to study under Beuys. Using the name IMI in common (the origins of which have never been adequately explained: the same name was used by the Henkel Co. for its "universal cleaning agent"), Giese and Knoebel took over Room 19 as their studio at the Academy. There they immersed themselves in issues concerning the established art genres, especially that of geometric abstraction, which many others considered passé.

In sculptural groups and series of pencil drawings – from 1966 to 1969 – Giese explored the complex reciprocal relationship between two and three dimensionality. Most of his sculptures were made up of several geometric volumes that either differed in their mass or formed variations of a shape. The 3 Quader, in their fixed distance to each other, are arranged on an axis. Three edges of each element are rounded-off by quadrants. Giese at one point treated the base, another time the side, as an intersection, and twice halved the radius of gyration, which initially corresponded to half the length of the edges.

On the basis of mathematical rules of construction, a system of comparative relations came into being. This is the aspect in which Giese's work differs fundamentally from American Minimal Art, a movement that appeared around the same time and that likewise boasted multipart, formally reduced objects. If, among other things, Donald Judd wanted to exclude any relationship between single elements, with Giese it is exactly these relationships that are of crucial importance.

<b>IMI Giese, 3 Quader, 1968
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Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein highlights a work from the permanent collection each month throughout the year. Works from the collection of the Hilti Art Foundation are also included in this series on a regular basis.