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

Artist: Imi Knoebel, German, born 1940
Publisher: Galerie Erhard Klein, Bonn, Germany, active 1972–2013
Date: 1991
Material: Masonite and wood
probably made in: Germany, Europe
published in: Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen state, Germany, Europe
Classification: Sculpture
Collection: Modern and Contemporary Art
Current Location: On View, Gallery 257
Dimensions: 11 13/16 × 11 13/16 × 2 7/8 in. (30 × 30 × 7.3 cm)
Credit Line: Partial and promised gift of Betsy Millard, the Earl and Betsy Millard Collection
Rights: © Imi Knoebel / Artists Rights Society, New York
Object Number: 66:2003

NOTES

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.

Provenance

1991 -
Imi Knoebel

- 1992
Galerie Fahnemann, Berlin, Germany

1992 -
Earl Millard (d.1996) and Betsy Millard, St. Louis, MO, USA, purchased from Galerie Fahnemann

2003 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, partial and promised gift of Betsy Millard [1]

Notes:
The primary source of provenance is Betsy Millard.

[1] The terms of this partial and promised gift are detailed in the contract between Betsy Millard and the Saint Louis Art Museum [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees of the Board of Commissioners, Saint Louis Art Museum, June 3, 2003.

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