Imi Knoebel (1940 Dessau) (F), Anima Mundi 1-3 Ed. II'

3 parts, each acrylic on collaged plastic foil, 37 cm x 29 cm, label on verso, titled, dated 2010, inscribed '1/3' - '3/3', example 3/3, mounted, slightly wavy due to mounting

Imi Knoebel studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under Joseph Beuys from 1964-71. Initially inspired by Russian Constructivism, Knoebel explored the relationship between color and space. Knoebel obviously refers to the world-famous ''Black Square'' by the artist Kasimir Malevich, which primarily and clearly freed itself from the depictive idea of art. With his work, the artist answers the questions of contemporary art throughout his entire oeuvre: space, image, viewer, perspective - what is art for? All these aspects are in question in our time and are also dealt with by Imi Knoebel, until he leaves out what was originally intended to be a painting - namely color and form on canvas - and elevates the stretcher frame itself as a work of art. To this end, the artist explores aspects of materiality, two- and three-dimensionality, as well as constructed and accidental spatial principles. Over the years, material assemblages and drawings, silhouettes, small and large-format works with monochrome painted and equally polychrome assembled works. In the 1990s, Knoebel developed an interest in aluminium as a color carrier, which allowed him to put together structure, rhythm and the diversity of color, as he pleased. Layers of the material, forms, lines and spaces of color emerge from areas of color that steps into the viewer's space through their structure and the luminosity of each color. The so-called and at this point title-giving ''Anima Mundi'' (engl. the world soul) can be seen as a religious or natural philosophical concept and probably describes the analogy of the totality of the cosmos and the individual living being, the human being. The universe as a macrocosm is supposed to be structured analogously to the human being, the microcosm. But how can this far-reaching and extensive concept be related to a work of art? Just as a picture can be put together in Knoebel's artistic sense, it can also be broken down into its individual parts, creating basic forms that themselves carry pictorial functions. In our presented three-part edition of the work series ''Anima Mundi'', the artist puts the principle of the framed picture into different colored acrylic surfaces on collaged plastic foil. Each of the three parts has a different color composition: one in brown with black and green tones; a second in light blue, with lime green, white, pink and coral colored areas and a third in black, with rosé, bordeaux, orange and cream colored areas. What seems essential here is the freedom of the color composition and the composition of the individual picture elements, which could perhaps even be transferred to the freedom of each person in the construct of the world. Each one himself, as part of the ''Anima Mundi''.