Imi Knoebel

Barnett Newman, 1969: “Who is afraid of red, yellow and blue?” Imi Knoebel, 2009: “NOT ME!”
Imi Knoebel, one of the most important contemporary abstract painters, has concentrated for over fifteen years on the primary colours of blue, yellow and red; these have a similar architectural function to that of foundation stones. Based on the artist’s proposal – an abstract composition of these colours – in 2008 Knoebel received a commission to design six church windows for the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Reims. These will be inaugurated in June 2011 in this high Gothic cathedral where the French kings were crowned.
This opulent volume provides both a richly colourful documentation and an in-depth description of the entire project, which, following the tradition of Marc Chagall and Brigitte Simon who both designed church windows, creates a fascinating symbiosis between the old and the new.