The series of works entitled “ Porträts”, to which the present work belongs, was created between 1991 and 1995. Since the late 1980s, Imi Knoebel has focused entirely on the effect of color. To avoid distraction by formal aspects, he opted for a consistent five-part scheme within a rectangle, which may recall a stylized human face. The five parts of each picture not only stand out from each other in terms of color but are also accentuated by joints to enhance the intrinsic value of the individual color fields. Viewed en face, the surface still vaguely resembles the schematic features of a human face.
“Wera” is an exceptionally large work with a powerful presence. The title “Wera” suggests an association with the Russian avant-garde artist Vera Mikhailovna Yermolayeva (1893–1937). Marc Chagall appointed her, along with El Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich, to teach at the “People's Art School” he had founded in Vitebsk in 1918. From 1920 onwards, she followed Chagall as director of this important institution. In the course of the Stalinist purges, the artist was arrested in 1934 and died in a camp near Karaganda (Kazakhstan) in 1937.
However, Imi Knoebel is not concerned with depicting real people but rather with the superordinate concept of portraiture, where the choice and interplay of colors replace the face's individuality, allowing the colors to speak for the person. In their strict reduction to schemes that vary in color but are formally reduced, his portraits are reminiscent of Alexej Jawlensky's intense exploration of the motif of the head. [EH]