Imi Knoebel – “Basel Fenster”

Knoebel stud­ied from 1962 – 64 at the Werkkun­stschule (School for Applied Arts) in Darm­stadt and moved in 1964, fas­ci­nated by the teach­ing style and per­son­al­ity of Joseph Beuys, to the Kun­stakademie (Art Acad­emy) in Düs­sel­dorf. Knoebel, how­ever, dis­tanced him­self from the other Beuys stu­dents and devel­oped his own, min­i­mal­ist style, influ­enced by its great fore­run­ner Kazimir Male­vich. Fol­low­ing puris­tic line draw­ings, light pro­jec­tions and white paint­ings (1972 – 75) Knoebel turned to colour for the first time in 1974. During the 1980s the artist experimented with found objects, incorporating them within his installation pieces. Continuing his investigation into the medium of painting, Knoebel has also expanded his practice to an architectural scale; his largest commission to date saw the artist design several stained glass windows for the Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral, installed in 2011 and 2015.