Irma Blank (B. 1934)

Working in Europe, the Conceptual artist Irma Blank integrated language, text-based systems of organization and mathematical equations into her work. Upon moving to Sicily in 1968 from her native Germany, the Conceptual artist Irma Blank developed her signature language-based drawings, the Eigenschriften. Filing the page with an abstracted version of cursive reminiscent of Cy Twombly’s blackboard drawings, Irma Blank inscribed each page with the meditative, time-based practice has come to personify her style. The conceptual, time-based nature of her drawings (each line of abstracted script corresponds to a single breath) is revelatory, especially given their early execution and later influence on an entire generation of Contemporary artists.