Having previously worked with oil paint, Knifer switched to using acrylic in 1968, impressed by the new possibilities it offered in relation to the compactness of the painted surface. In Untitled, 1969, as with other works made using acrylic, the traces of the brushwork are invisible. Art historian Vera Horvat Pintaric has noted that acrylic enabled Knifer to create colour surfaces that were ‘evenly condensed, solid and impenetrable, taking a new tactile quality’ (in Makovic 2002, p.68).
Untitled, 1969 was made at a time when Knifer was turning to a more open chromatic range in his painting in an attempt to reassess the radical reduction of means that he had begun ten years earlier. This work is related to number of other works colour such as M 69–41 1969 (Tate collection). Knifer titled his works in a variety of ways, using the terms ‘meander’ and ‘untitled’ at times, at others incorporating his own system of letters and numbers. These works were made during a short period when colour appeared in his work, a black meander on a grey surface, and variations of a black symbol on a golden surface and a blue symbol on a black or golden surface. The paintings were made following his travels throughout Yugoslavia where he visited various monasteries and studied the icon paintings he saw there. Reference to Yves Klein’s (1928–1962) monochromatic painting, his reductive approach and interest in transcendental and metaphysical concepts, as well as his experimentation with the colours gold and blue can also be inferred. The exhibition Yves Klein which took place at the Gallery of Contemporary Art (Galerija Suvremene Umjetnosti) in Zagreb from March to April 1971 would have resonated with Knifer at this time.