Figur I, 1985

About the Work

In Imi Knoebel’s work, figure and ground coincide. In ‘Figure I’, wood, tiles and sheet iron are combined into one picture. The lines of the composition are not drawn or painted onto the support; they are in fact real edges between the individual elements of the composition. This is what they have in common with a photographic image. The outlines visible in a photograph also demarcate real objects which are processed into two dimensions. Knoebel’s work oscillates between geometric abstraction and the real object.