In the 1960s, aiming at anti-painting, Knifer created minimal means of expression using the method of reduction and, accordingly, chose a meander as a definitive form of his paintings. He used black-and-white contrasts, relations between the verticals and the horizontals in order to create a monotonous rhythm, which for the artist represented the simplest and the most expressive rhythm.
Though very similar, Knifer’s Meanders were interpreted differently due to the period in which they appeared: first in the context of geometric abstraction and neo-constructivism in the New Tendencies of the 1960s, then the emphasis on their asceticism and interest for the absurd present in the anti-art of the neo-avantgarde group Gorgona. Minimalism and conceptualism changed conditions under which his paintings were supposed to be interpreted in the same manner, as subsequent approaches would reveal numerous new connotations.
Julije Knifer
*1924 Osijek , Croatia
† 2004 Paris , France
Exhibitions (selection)
2001 La Biennale di Venezia, 49. Esposizione Internazionale d´Arte, Venezia, I
2000 Formes du simple 2, MAMCO, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Genève, CH
2000 Julije Knifer, Odeon 5, Paris, F
1999 Aspekte / Positionen. 50 Jahre Kunst aus Mitteleuropa 1949-1999, MMKSLW. Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Palais Liechtenstein, 20er Haus, A
1997 Biennale di Venezia, 47. Esposizione Internazionale d´Arte, Venezia, Ikona Gallery, Magazzini del Sale, Venezia, I
1996 Julije Knifer, La box, Bourges, F
1994 Ifa-Galerie, Stuttgart, D
1993 “Noir dessin”, Musée national d’art moderne, cabinet d’Art Graphique, Paris, F
1973 XII. Sao Paolo Art Biennale, Sao Paolo, BR
1966 Galerija suvremene umjetnosti [Contemporary Art Gallery], Zagreb, HR
1961 Galerie Denise René, Paris, F
selected bibliography:
Julije Knifer. Arbeitsprozess Tübingen, Ingrid and Žika Dacić (eds.), Tübingen, 1975.
Koščević, Želimir: Julije Knifer – Meander from Tübingen 1973-1988, Galerija suvremene umjentosti (ed.), Zagreb, 1989.
Gorgona (…Jevšovar, Knifer…), Art Plus Université de Bourgogne, (ed.), Dijon, 1989.
Pierre, Arnauld: Julije Knifer – Méandres, Adam Biro (ed.), Paris, 2001.
Maković, Zvonko: Julije Knifer, Studio Rašić, Meandar, Zagreb, 2002.
