Klaus Wolf Knoebel initially studied at the School of Applied Art in Darmstadt which followed the principles of the Bauhaus. He met Rainer Giese there, both adopted the first name „Imi“. They went to Düsseldorf to study with Joseph Beuys.
Already in Imi Knoebel‘s early works, a radical purism, influenced by Malevich and Constructivism, becomes evident. Initially, he only created works in black and white, which achieve their effect by their arrangement, the composition of the planes, the proportions, and their relation to the surrounding space. Only after Imi Giese’s death in 1974, did Knoebel begin to use colour.
From 1972 on he was invited to four consecutive documenta exhibitions in Kassel.
Knoebel today still explores the relation of colour, shape, and space.
