Julije Knifer

Knifer proposed his classic "meander" theme, a geometric structure characterized by the contrasts between black and white, which he introduced at the end of 1959 as a form of "anti-painting". Nena Dimitrijević (1977) identified it as a synonym of his "artistic identity" and claimed that he, inspired by Primary Painting and Hard Edge aesthetics, adopted a form of conceptualization of the artistic practice which identifies with a single pictorial solution, a symbol that is the sublimation of radical will. During the exhibition in Hanover Julije Knifer. Neue Arbeiten 1991-1993, dedicated to Knifer's activity in this period, Davor Matičević proposed a periodization of the artist in four different stages, stating that if at the beginning the "meander" could have been compared to the neoconstructivists trends and researches like those of the group Zero, N or Equipo 57, in his latest works he had distanced himself from it focusing on individual activities; according to the critic, especially in the 80's and 90s he came up with a new approach, transforming the neutral components in individual ones and ideals in emotional ones.