Hartfaserquadrat (Ehre an Kasimir Sewerinowitsch Malewitsh) (Masonite Square [In Honor of Kazimir Malevich])

To illustrate how art relates to labor, construction, and architecture, Imi Knoebel mounted Masonite board on a pine stretcher for this box-shaped work. By using prefabricated Masonite instead of paint on canvas—the traditional medium of monochrome painting—Knoebel did not proclaim the end of painting. Rather, he highlighted how reduction itself creates a new set of possibilities. The artist began using ordinary, humble building materials as a student of Joseph Beuys at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1964 to 1971.