Imi Knoebel Black Painting. 1990

Lacquer and incisions on masonite. 210 × 150 × 9 cm (82 ⅝ × 59 × 3 ½ in.). Signed and dated in white paint on the reverse: imi 90. Also inscribed there: 23.. [3111] We would like to thank Christian Lethert, Cologne, for kindly providing additional information. Lacquer and incisions on masonite. 210 × 150 × 9 cm (82 ⅝ × 59 × 3 ½ in.). Signed and dated in white paint on the reverse: imi 90. Also inscribed there: 23.. [3111], We would like to thank Christian Lethert, Cologne, for kindly providing additional information. Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York / Private collection, USA (until 2005) / Formerly private collection, USA, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York / Private collection, USA (until 2005) / Formerly private collection, USA, Battle Paintings. New York, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, 1991, Auction: Post-War & Contemporary Art. New York, Christie’s, 15 March 2005, lot 68 (“Schwarzes Bild Nr. 23”), ill. p. 71, As if inspired by Christoph Schlingensief’s satirical underground film “Das deutsche Kettensägenmassaker” (The German Chainsaw Massacre), also made in 1990, Imi Knoebel developed his “Schlachtenbilder” (Battle Paintings) as a radical departure from his earlier works, which were characterised by intense colour. Schlingensief’s film is distinguished by its garish aesthetic and seemingly accidental acts of injury. Knoebel’s interventions in the picture surface convey a similarly unruly energy. At the same time, his cuts and wounds unfold into a dynamic, expressive all-over gesture that spreads with unrestrained vigour across the glossy black surface, whose uncompromising intensity is equally compelling. The formal parallels and temporal proximity of the two works suggest a possible common ground: each artist responds in his own way to the sociopolitical climate in Germany at the time of reunification. As if out of the blue, without any indication of such a radical break in his previous work, Imi Knoebel began using chainsaws and other tools to work on, even virtually brutalise, rectangular panels coated in glossy black lacquer. He called them “Schlachtenbilder”. First exhibited in 1991 in the exhibition “Metropolis” at the Gropius Bau in Berlin, they form a striking counterpoint to an oeuvre that had until then been defined primarily by colour. These works reveal an unfamiliar side of an artist otherwise known for his precise and controlled approach: a radical expressiveness that turns his earlier colour-field paintings on their head. This gesture might even be understood as a form of liberation, a breaking free from his own artistic rigour through which Knoebel discovered new impulses for his work. While continuing to produce works of the utmost formal precision in his contemporaneous “Grace Kelly” paintings, here he directs his aggression straight at the support itself: a hardboard panel stretched over a sturdy construction. Applying the force of his own body, he inflicts deep cuts and wounds on the surface. The result is an informal visual language in which chance and control collide. Years later, Knoebel explained his motivation at the time in one of his rare interviews, published in the online edition of the British newspaper The Guardian on 15 July 2015: “I thought everything had already been done. Yves Klein had painted his canvas blue, Lucio Fontana had cut his. What was left to do? If you want to do something to stay alive, you have to come up with something at least as radical.” MvL

Estimation:€100,000

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