Imi Knoebel

The collection of the Kunstraum am Limes in Hillscheid includes important works by Düsseldorf painter Imi Knoebel from the early 1960s to the present day. In collaboration with Imi and Carmen Knoebel, the Kunstraum am Limes and Galerie Christian Lethert have realized an exhibition that provides an impressive overview of the multifaceted work of the artist, who for decades has unconventionally and consistently questioned and expanded the definition of what is considered painting.

More than 50 works are on display in three rooms, which are not presented chronologically but follow the artist’s concept. In the first room hangs the 8-part work »Schwules Bild« from 1976, whose free forms and colorfulness represented a novelty in the artist’s oeuvre at the time. The beginnings were formed by monochrome works in white and black as well as spatial installations made of hard fiber images and bodies, which can also be seen in the exhibition, such as »Raum 19 IV – Modell«, 1968/2008.
In the third and largest room, the works – colorful paintings on wood or on aluminum, the latter of which Imi Knoebel has increasingly used since the 1990s – hang closely next to and on top of each other. This form of salon hanging impressively makes developments, turning points and connecting lines comprehensible and impressively underlines that the beginnings have not lost their relevance.

With his constructivist approach, Imi Knoebel has created an impressive body of work far from any representational function and with a consistent reduction to form and color. Design principles such as layering, sequencing and stacking as well as a predominantly serial working method and the increasingly virtuoso use of color still characterize his work today.

The exhibition IMI KNOEBEL can be seen until 19. March 2025 at Kunstraum am Limes – Collection of Contemporary Art, Hillscheid.