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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE GERMAN COLLECTIONChristie’s is delighted to present the following works from an important private German collection (lots 1-4 and 112). Assembled with an architectural eye for space and form, these are objects which engage with painting’s past in order to look to the future. The collector has long been attracted to works from the post-War generation: a period of artistic self-reflection between Pop Art and the new figuration that encompasses a broad range of cerebral artistic positions. From brave large-scale works to radically crafted modes of painting, what unites this collection is a sense of thoughtful construction and self-reflection. Imi Knoebel is preoccupied with the encounter of colour and its material support, his geometric abstraction refashioning the legacy of Mondrian and Malevich. ‘What can I say about my works that they don’t say? When I am asked about what I think when I look at a painting, I can only answer that I don't think at all; I look at it and can only take in the beauty, and I don’t want to see it in relation to anything else. Only what I see, simply because it has its own validity’ (Imi Knoebel, quoted in J. Stüttgen, ‘“I wouldn't Say Anything Voluntary Anyway!” Interview with Imi Knoebel,’ Imi Knoebel: Works 1966-2014, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, p. 24). Knoebel’s self-justifying principle of beauty stands aptly for the collection, which seeks to fully appreciate art outside of the white cube gallery setting, integrating even the most monumental works into daily existence. Günther Förg’s paintings, emptied of any theory, dogma or subjective aspiration, parody the high-minded spirituality of Modernist abstraction, building planes of shape and colour according to purely objective criteria. Helmut Federle’s work demands studied contemplation, setting itself in opposition to the immediacy of the spectacular, reproduced, image: ‘Knowing me is easy, but knowing what’s in the paintings is difficult’ (H. Federle, quoted in ‘Helmut Federle In Conversation’, Brooklyn Rail, 5 November 2009). The present selection gathers things of beauty with a keen awareness of how they are made: with the dual pleasure of insight and enjoyment.

Imi Knoebel (b. 1940)

Luise

Details

Imi Knoebel (b. 1940)
Luise
signed and dated 'imi '93' (on the reverse)
acrylic on five joined wooden panels
50 x 35.5 x 9cm.
Executed in 1993

Provenance

Galerie Fahnemann, Berlin.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1993.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Brought to you by

Elvira Jansen

ejansen@christies.com +31 6 53 69 14 80

Luise

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