Irma Blank, whose meditative paintings and drawings explored the written word, has died. The German artist’s interest in language was spurred after she moved to Sicily in 1955 when she was 21 and a realisation, she said, that ‘the correct word does not exist’ to fully express an idea accurately.
The early series Eigenschriften (Self-Writings, 1968–73), made as Blank struggled to learn Italian, features meaningless repetitions of signs written in ink on paper, in which the lines flow to form different shapes on the page. Eigenschriften, Schwarz 9 (1973), for example, appears to be a page of handwritten text when viewed from a distance, but up-close reveals itself to be a series of neatly distanced black squiggles. She told Frieze in 2017: ‘To me, one sign represented all the other signs, because they were always the same, yet never identical’.
On moving to Milan, where she settled, she was exposed to concrete poetry. Blank turned her attention to the visual form of the typed word, creating dozen of Trascrizione, hand-drawn approximations of various printed layouts, from the newspaper page to books and poems, which were ultimately devoid of actual words. In 1978, having taken part in Documenta 6 in Kassel a year prior, she was invited to take part in a section of the Venice Biennale titled Materialization of Language. Working at night, with minimal outside disturbance, Blank became transfixed by the sound of her pen against the paper and began to record herself making her works, resulting in a series of meditative sound works. Creating one-off books also allowed her to explore notions of touch, she said.
The series Radical Writings (1983–96) brought colour into her practice though a form of linear writing, in oil, acrylic or watercolour on canvas or paper, based on the duration of her breath. ‘Time accompanies us,’ she said, ‘but we also accompany time, and as we proceed every occurrence, including errors, finds its balance, until life coincides with a path of signs, a road that goes from the beginning to the end.’
As well as gallery exhibitions with P420, Bologna, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zürich, solo shows included Transkriptionen at Staats-und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, Hamburg, 1975); Irma Blank. Libri e giornali at Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Milan, 1984; Konfrontation 1974-1989 at Artothek im Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, 1989; Bleu Carnac e storie e simili at Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, 1992; Irma Blank, Breath Paintings at Mostyn Museum, Llandudno, 2014; and Irma Blank, works from the collection of Museion at Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Bolzano, Bolzano in 2017. She was repre
