Acrylic paint on wood and aluminium, 4 parts
36 × 26,8 × 7,9 cm each
DIN XVIII C1 – C4 belongs to a series of multi-part works whose titles make reference to the names of standard German paper formats. The German Institute of Standardisation (DIN) has de ned four series of formats, distinguished by the capital letters A to D and numbered 0 to 10 in ascending order of their size, since 1922 in order to introduce a voluntary standard for the production of paper and printed materials.
Imi Knoebel's C series consists of four identically shaped wood and aluminium objects hung at the same height and with identical spacing on the wall. The sides facing the viewer are painted so that horizontal and vertical edge strips on each object outline a central upright rectangle – thus forming a monochrome middle section enclosed by a multicoloured frame. The middle sections and frame pieces are depicted in the primary colours red, yellow, blue and the non-colour white, their combinations varied so as never to repeat a particular colour scheme.
The search for the essence of painting and the question as to how it can continue to exist are characteristic of Knoebel's work. He received his training at a time of social and political upheaval, when a new definition of art was being called for in the context of the nascent student protest movement. In 1964, Knoebel began studying with his friend Rainer Giese (who, like Klaus Wolf Knoebel, had assumed the first name Imi) at the State Academy of the Arts in Düsseldorf, where Joseph Beuys was a charismatic teacher. The privilege of being able to work in a room of their own allowed Imi & Imi to distance themselves radically from Beuys's other students. The two artists confronted the latters' figurative works with an abstract language of art founded upon geometric shapes, drawing their inspiration particularly from Kazimir Malevich's suprematism.
Franziska Hilbe
