Concrete, like hardboard, plywood, cardboard, and paper, became one of Imi Knoebel’s favorite art materials in the 1990s. This led to the first series of Betoni in 1990. These are polygonal, monochrome concrete castings of right-angled slabs interlocked together. A stock of 2,147 cut-out paper designs that Knoebel had already produced in 1976 for the Mennigebilder series provided the basis for these angular shapes. In the same year, the artist translated some of these designs into plywood works and presented them in monochrome colors. This procedure shows Knoebel’s propensity to take up his own formal vocabulary again and again and transfer it into different art media.
The same group of works also includes: Betoni 90-01 (1990) und Betoni 90-67 (1990).