Imi Knoebel (born 1940) is among the most important German artists working today. His painting is both analytical and sensual, it appears hermetic but always remains accessible, it is rigorous one moment and completely free the next, it draws on the history of modernism and is nonetheless entirely contemporary. Showing and concealing is another of these dichotomies that characterize Knoebel’s work, finding expression in the technique of stacking and layering. Knoebel works with the support and with form and colour.
The huge picture Bleu Blue (2003) from the collection of Kerstin Hiller and Helmut Schmelzer is only a deep-blue monochrome picture at first glance; on closer inspection, other shades of blue and turquoise and even red with which the supporting structure is painted can be seen near the edges and at the joins in the multipart surface.