74-477: Yves Klein ( French: [iv klɛ̃] ; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany . Klein was a pioneer in the development of performance art , and is seen as an inspiration to and as a forerunner of minimal art , as well as pop art . He
148-401: A 1959 sculpture made with natural sea sponges drenched in blue pigment, fetched $ 22 million, the highest price paid for a sculpture by the artist, at Sotheby's New York . Nouveau r%C3%A9alisme Nouveau réalisme (French for "new realism") is an artistic movement founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany and the painter Yves Klein during the first collective exposition in
222-477: A French version of Pop Art , the aim of the group was stated as 'Nouveau Réalisme—new ways of perceiving the real' [ Nouveau Réalisme nouvelles approches perceptives du réel ]. A large retrospective was held at Krefeld , Germany, January 1961, followed by an unsuccessful opening at Leo Castelli Gallery , New York, in which Klein failed to sell a single painting. He stayed with Rotraut at the Chelsea Hotel for
296-759: A barefoot peasant holding earth in his hands, also reproduced in the magazine Arts de France as a painting representing the movement. The new realism movement of the 50s eventually fell out of favour with the PCF and most artists associated with it soon changed their styles accordingly. The term new realism was again used in May 1960 by Pierre Restany, to describe the works of Omiros, Arman, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely and Jacques Villeglé as they exhibited their work in Milan. He had discussed this term before with Yves Klein (who died prematurely in 1962), who preferred
370-446: A book, a musical composition—but then would take away the expected content of that form (paintings without pictures, a book without words, a musical composition without in fact composition) leaving only a shell, as it were. In this way he tried to create for the audience his "Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility". Instead of representing objects in a subjective, artistic way, Klein wanted his subjects to be represented by their imprint:
444-415: A cold and ferocious manner. Only very recently I have become a sort of gravedigger of art (oddly enough, I am using the very terms of my enemies). Some of my latest works have been coffins and tombs. During the same time I succeeded in painting with fire, using particularly powerful and searing gas flames, some of them measuring three to four meters high. I use these to bathe the surface of the painting in such
518-462: A description of the work, alongside an image of the work. Some catalogues also include scholarly commentary about each work or, sometimes, commentary about a piece from the artist. This information is relied upon by others to identify works and plays an important role in authentication. While historically catalogues raisonnés have been produced as physical books, there is a shift towards catalogues existing only in digital form, such as like those of
592-561: A disdain of convention. Klein had studied judo in Japan between 1952 and 1954, and also displayed an interest in Zen Buddhism . According to Berggruen, he used ritual as a means not to attain belief, but rather as a forum through which to reach abstraction—transcending worldly vestiges temporarily, and returning to earth as a new being. Recently my work with color has led me, in spite of myself, to search little by little, with some assistance (from
666-462: A globe, 3D reliefs of areas of France and dowels which he hung from the ceiling as rain. He also stuck sponges to canvases and painted dinner plates. Many of these works were later manufactured as editioned multiples after his death. In Blue Obelisk , a project that he had failed to realise in 1958, but that finally happened in 1983, he appropriated the Place de la Concorde by shining blue spotlights onto
740-469: A membership with an American society dedicated to Rosicrucianism . While attending the École Nationale des Langues Orientales Klein began practicing judo . During the years 1948 to 1952, he travelled to Italy, Great Britain, Spain, and Japan. He travelled to Japan in 1953 where he became, at the age of 25, a master at judo receiving the rank of yodan (4th dan /degree black-belt) from the Kodokan , becoming
814-458: A monochromatic gold painting, sold for $ 21 million at Christie's. FC1 (Fire Color 1) (1962), a nearly 10-foot (3.0 m)-long panel created with a blowtorch, water and two models, sold for $ 36,482,500 at Christie's on 8 May 2012. The record for the most expensive of his paintings was reached by Le Rose du Bleu (RE 22) , who sold by $ 36,753,200 at Christie's London, on 27 June 2012. In 2013, Klein's Sculpture Éponge Bleue Sans Titre, SE 168 ,
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#1732856055984888-709: A new and real awareness of their "collective singularity", meaning that they were together in spite of, or perhaps because of, their differences. But for all the diversity of their plastic language, they perceived a common basis for their work; this being a method of direct appropriation of reality, equivalent, in the terms used by Pierre Restany, to a "poetic recycling of urban, industrial and advertising reality". Artists of Nouveau Réalisme sought out to strip art of previously thought standards that art had to mean something, they could take any object beyond its preconceived notions and present it as itself, and thought it could still be considered art. Many of them also sought to break down
962-612: A particular decision. In 2012, the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board was dissolved, citing as the primary reason the substantial legal fees incurred in defense of its authentication activities. To distance themselves from liability, some institutions like the Wildenstein Institute , who were once responsible for the catalogues raisonnés of impressionists such as Monet, had a stated policy for considering works which was: 'After examination, and based on
1036-477: A policy stating "Whatever the committee's recommendation, the work will be returned upon presentation of the consignment receipt". However, there has been evidence of some producers of catalogue raisonné refusing to return works or having them destroyed. In 2014, the Chagall Committee deemed a work that was submitted to be a forgery and informed the owner that they intend to destroy the artwork either with
1110-464: A single 20-minute sustained D major chord followed by a 20-minute silence – a precedent to Klein's later monochrome paintings and to the work of minimal musicians , particularly La Monte Young 's drone music and John Cage's 4′33″ . The Symphony is rarely performed. Composer and performer Roland Dahinden said that "You can’t really do a full rehearsal of something like this" because "It’s too hard. Everyone would just die." The first performance
1184-512: A sort of mosaic. From the reactions of the audience, [Klein] realized that...viewers thought his various, uniformly colored canvases amounted to a new kind of bright, abstract interior decoration. Shocked at this misunderstanding, Klein knew a further and decisive step in the direction of monochrome art would have to be taken...From that time onwards he would concentrate on one single, primary color alone: blue. The next exhibition, 'Proposte Monocrome, Epoca Blu' (Proposition Monochrome; Blue Epoch) at
1258-561: A way that it registered the spontaneous trace of fire. He moved on to exhibit at the Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles, and traveled extensively in the Western U.S. , visiting Death Valley in the Mojave Desert . In 1962, Klein married Rotraut Uecker who gave birth to their son shortly after his death. Klein suffered a heart attack while watching the film Mondo Cane (in which he is featured) at
1332-413: Is also a term applied to a group of Australian architects determined to create a "New Realism" in architecture, based on the understanding of past developments in the discipline of architecture and modern day explorations of new technologies in the fields of design and building technology. Catalogue raisonn%C3%A9 A catalogue raisonné (or critical catalogue ) is an annotated listing of
1406-562: Is housed in Phoenix, Arizona , where his widow Rotraut Klein-Moquay has a home. On 8 December 2017, Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers released the lead single from their thirteenth studio album Resistance is Futile , International Blue . The song was inspired by Klein, particularly the titular International Klein Blue. The Manics' bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire told the Quietus ""There
1480-668: Is known for the development and use of International Klein Blue . Klein was born in Nice , in the Alpes-Maritimes department of France. His parents, Fred Klein and Marie Raymond , were both painters. His father painted in a loose post-impressionist style, while his mother was a leading figure in Art informel , and held regular soirées with other leading practitioners of this Parisian abstract movement. Klein received no formal training in art, but his parents exposed him to different styles. His father
1554-517: The Cannes Film Festival on 11 May 1962. Two more heart attacks followed, the second of which killed him on 6 June 1962. Thomas McEvilley , in an essay submitted to Artforum in 1982, classified Klein as an early, though enigmatic, postmodernist artist. A sort of parody of Klein's Anthropometry performance is featured in the 1961 film Wise Guys (original title: Les Godelureaux ) directed by Claude Chabrol . The Yves Klein archive
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#17328560559841628-671: The Iris Clert Gallery in May 1957, became a seminal happening. To mark the opening, 1,001 blue balloons were released and blue postcards were sent out using IKB stamps that Klein had bribed the postal service to accept as legitimate. Concurrently, an exhibition of tubs of blue pigment and fire paintings was held at Galerie Collette Allendy. For his next exhibition at the Iris Clert Gallery (April 1958), Klein chose to show nothing whatsoever, called La spécialisation de la sensibilité à l'état matière première en sensibilité picturale stabilisée, Le Vide ( The Specialization of Sensibility in
1702-523: The Ultra-Lettrists , Francois Dufrêne , Raymond Hains , Jacques de la Villeglé ; in 1961 these were joined by César , Mimmo Rotella , then Niki de Saint Phalle and Gérard Deschamps . The artist Christo showed with the group. It was dissolved in 1970. Contemporary with American pop art , and often conceived as its transposition in France, new realism was, along with Fluxus and other groups, one of
1776-402: The catalogue raisonné. Some artists, such as Roy Lichtenstein have some works recognised by their catalogue producers as potentially genuine but are not included in their respective official catalogues due to being unfinished, abandoned or destroyed. The New York Times has described catalogues raisonnés as the "supreme arbiter of the genuine and fake". In the case of deceased artists,
1850-449: The "authenticity of the pure idea." This colour, reminiscent of the lapis lazuli used to paint the Madonna's robes in medieval paintings, was to become known as International Klein Blue (IKB). The paintings were attached to poles placed 20 cm (8 in) away from the walls to increase their spatial ambiguities. All 11 of the canvases were priced differently. The buyers would go through
1924-625: The Apollinaire gallery in Milan . Pierre Restany wrote the original manifesto for the group, titled the "Constitutive Declaration of New Realism," in April 1960, proclaiming, "Nouveau Réalisme—new ways of perceiving the real." This joint declaration was signed on 27 October 1960, in Yves Klein's workshop, by nine people: Yves Klein , Arman , Martial Raysse , Pierre Restany , Daniel Spoerri , Jean Tinguely and
1998-507: The Gallery Apollinaire, Milan, (January 1957), featured 11 identical blue canvases, using ultramarine pigment suspended in a synthetic resin 'Rhodopas', described by Klein as "The Medium". Discovered with the help of Edouard Adam, a Parisian paint dealer, the optical effect retained the brilliance of the pigment which, when suspended in linseed oil, tended to become dull. Klein later deposited a Soleau envelope for this recipe to maintain
2072-605: The IKB paintings being uniformly coloured, Klein experimented with various methods of applying the paint; firstly different rollers and then later sponges, created a series of varied surfaces. This experimentalism would lead to a number of works Klein made using naked female models covered in blue paint and dragged across or laid upon canvases to make the image, using the models as "living brushes". This type of work he called Anthropometry . Other paintings in this method of production include "recordings" of rain that Klein made by driving around in
2146-785: The Muratore Gallery and the Abbaye de Roseland; International Exhibition of the New Realists , a survey of contemporary American pop art and the Nouveau Réalisme movement at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York at the end of 1962; and at the Biennale of San Marino in 1963 (which would be the last collective show by the group). The movement had difficulty maintaining a cohesive program after
2220-690: The Raw Material State into Stabilized Pictorial Sensibility, The Void ): he removed everything in the gallery space except a large cabinet, painted every surface white, and then staged an elaborate entrance procedure for the opening night: the gallery's window was painted blue, and a blue curtain was hung in the entrance lobby, accompanied by republican guards and blue cocktails. Thanks to an enormous publicity drive, 3,000 people queued up, waiting to be let into an empty room. The art historian Olivier Berggruen situates Klein "as one who strove for total liberation," forming connections between perverse ritual and
2294-510: The Salon d'Automne in 1948. Painters like Boris Taslitzky , Jean Milhau, Jean Vénitien and Mireille Miailhe were also at its origin in France while Renato Guttuso , the "Italian Fougeron", was considered to be "at the origin of the new Italian realism", with his works on Sicilian peasants such as The Occupation of Waste Land in Sicily (1949) and Gabriele Mucchi with his painting La Terre representing
Yves Klein - Misplaced Pages Continue
2368-464: The Void ), originally published in his 1960 artist's book Dimanche , which apparently shows him jumping off a wall, arms outstretched, towards the pavement. Klein used the photograph as evidence of his ability to undertake unaided lunar travel. In fact, "Saut dans le vide", published as part of a broadside on the part of Klein (the "artist of space") denouncing NASA's own lunar expeditions as hubris and folly,
2442-453: The agreement of the owner or through the courts under the legal president of droit moral . The art historian Dr Bendor Grosvenor criticised the decision to destroy the painting. Art dealer and TV Presenter Philip Mould said of the decision "I would now [think] three times or more before sending [works] to Paris. Ugly acts like the one proposed by the Committee can have the effect of damaging
2516-455: The artists Isamu Noguchi and Roy Lichtenstein . Depending on the nationality of the artist or the country in which the catalogue's producers are based, other terms may be used which include: "critical catalogue", "complete works", œuvre , catalogo razonado , catalogo ragionato , catalogo generale , opera completa and Werkverzeichnis . The term catalogue raisonné is French, meaning "reasoned catalogue" (i.e. containing arguments for
2590-464: The catalogue is normally based on the research and investigation of art historians and experts and can take many years to complete. A team of 25 professionals created the three-volume catalogue raisonné of American painter Robert Motherwell over the course of 11 years led by the Dedalus Foundation and published by Yale University Press in 2012. Once a catalogue raisonné has been created ,
2664-594: The central obelisk. The art critic Pierre Restany , who spoke of how his first meeting with Klein had been fundamental to them both, went on to found the Nouveau Réalisme group with Klein in Klein's studio/apartment on 27 October 1960. Founding members were Arman , Francois Dufrêne, Raymond Hains , Yves Klein, Martial Raysse, Daniel Spoerri , Jean Tinguely , and Jacques Villeglé , with Niki de Saint Phalle , Christo and Gérard Deschamps joining later. Normally seen as
2738-459: The city in exchange for gold. He wanted his buyers to experience The Void by selling them empty space. In his view this experience could only be paid for in the purest material: gold. In exchange, he gave a certificate of ownership to the buyer. As the second part of the piece, performed on the Seine with an art critic in attendance, if the buyer agreed to set fire to the certificate, Klein would throw half
2812-605: The creation of Catalogues Raisonnés. However, there is no collective body to decide on the authority of a given catalogue raisonné publisher which can sometime result in more than one catalogue being produced for the same body of work. The work of the artist Amedeo Modigliani is the subject of at least five catalogues raisonnés . The catalogue raisonné is often described as the "definitive" catalogue of an artists work. However, some producers choose to only certain works in their catalogues. Some producers will not consider juvenile works of an artist or ephemera for inclusion in
2886-428: The creation of these paintings was turned into a kind of performance art —an event in 1960, for example, had an audience dressed in formal evening wear watching the models go about their task while an instrumental ensemble played Klein's 1949 The Monotone Symphony . In the performance piece, Zone de Sensibilité Picturale Immatérielle ( Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility ) 1959–1962, he offered empty spaces in
2960-456: The death of Yves Klein in June, 1962 and when Omiros abandoned it and decided to go in his own path experimenting with perspective and space. The members of the nouveaux réalistes group tended to see the world as an image from which they could take parts and incorporate them into their works—as they sought to bring life and art closer together. They declared that they had come together on the basis of
3034-422: The difference between "great wealth and the gutter", and auction houses sometimes refuse to handle unlisted works. This has led to some catalogue raisonné producers being the targets of lawsuits, bribes and death threats . For this reason, some catalogues raisonnés producers have decided to not update their catalogues, irrespective of new discoveries, for fear of legal action from sellers and buyers unhappy with
Yves Klein - Misplaced Pages Continue
3108-480: The duration of the exhibition; and, while there, he wrote the "Chelsea Hotel Manifesto", a proclamation of the "multiplicity of new possibilities." In part, the manifesto declared: At present, I am particularly excited by "bad taste." I have the deep feeling that there exists in the very essence of bad taste a power capable of creating those things situated far beyond what is traditionally termed "The Work of Art." I wish to play with human feeling, with its "morbidity" in
3182-401: The expression "today's realism" ( réalisme d'aujourd'hui ) and criticized the term "New". After the first "Manifesto of New Realism", a second manifesto, titled "40° above Dada" ( 40° au-dessus de Dada ) was written between 17 May and 10 June 1961. César , Mimmo Rotella , Niki de Saint-Phalle (then practicing "shooting paintings") Omiros with his "free space" and Gérard Deschamps then joined
3256-517: The first European to rise to that rank. Later that year, he became the technical director of the Spanish judo team. In 1954 Klein wrote a book on judo called Les Fondements du judo . The same year, he settled permanently in Paris and began in earnest to establish himself in the art world. Between 1947 and 1948, Klein conceived his Monotone Symphony (1949, formally Monotone Silence Symphony ) that consisted of
3330-462: The gallery, observing each canvas and purchase the one that was deemed best in their own eyes specifically. Klein's idea was that each buyer would see something unique in the canvas that they bought that other buyers may not have seen. So while each painting visually looked the same, the impact each had on the buyer was completely unique. The show was a critical and commercial success, traveling to Paris, Düsseldorf and London. The Parisian exhibition, at
3404-522: The glamorization of artists producing their craft in private, and due to this, often art pieces were produced in public. Thus the nouveaux réalistes advocated a return to "reality" in opposition to the lyricism of abstract painting . They also wanted to avoid what they saw as the traps of figurative art, which was seen as either petty-bourgeois or as Stalinist socialist realism . Hence the Nouveau Réalistes used exterior objects to give an account of
3478-431: The gold into the river, in order to restore the "natural order" that he had unbalanced by selling the empty space (that was now not "empty" anymore). He used the other half of the gold to create a series of gold-leafed works, which, along with a series of pink monochromes, began to augment his blue monochromes toward the end of his life. Klein is also well known for a composite photograph , Saut dans le vide ( Leap into
3552-572: The image of their absence. He tried to make his audience experience a state where an idea could simultaneously be "felt" as well as "understood". As well as painting flat canvases, Klein produced a series of works throughout his career that blurred the edges between painting and sculpture. He appropriated plaster casts of famous sculptures, such as the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo , by painting them International Klein Blue; he painted
3626-559: The information given, such as attributions), but is part of the technical terminology of the English-speaking art world. The spelling is never Americanized to "catalog", even in the United States. The French pluralization catalogues raisonnés is used. The process by which the catalogue raisonné is produced by the artist or an appointed committee of experts known as the catalogue's "producers". The process of creating and updating
3700-555: The movement, followed by Christo in 1963. Klein, however, started to distance himself from the group around 1961, disliking Restany's insistence on a Dadaist heritage. The first exposition of the nouveaux réalistes took place in November 1960 at the Paris " Festival d'avant-garde ". This exposition was followed by others: in May 1961 at the Gallery J. in Paris; Premier Festival du Nouveau Réalisme in Nice from July til September 1961 at
3774-465: The numerous tendencies of the avant-garde in the 1960s. The group initially chose Nice , on the French Riviera , as its home base since Klein and Arman both originated there; new realism is thus often retrospectively considered by historians to be an early representative of the École de Nice movement. The painter Jean Milhau coined the term “new realism” in the journal Arts de France , which
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#17328560559843848-503: The observer, from the translator), for the realization of matter, and I have decided to end the battle. My paintings are now invisible and I would like to show them in a clear and positive manner, in my next Parisian exhibition at Iris Clert's. Later in the year, he was invited to decorate the Gelsenkirchen Opera House , Germany, with a series of vast blue murals, the largest of which were 20 metres by 7 metres. The Opera House
3922-513: The opinion of the members of the committee, a recommendation is made in the form of the intention to include or not to include the work under study; a third possibility also exists, that of continuing the examination of the work. Under no circumstance is a recommendation to be considered as a certificate of authenticity or appraisal, and no justification will be provided for said recommendation.' Some bodies of work have no published catalogue raisonné but organisations exist who are regarded as having
3996-600: The painting's authenticity. It is reported that Guy-Patrice Dauberville of Bernheim-Jeune said of the matter "[The Wildenstein institute] would be thrilled to turn [the Renoir] down." A journalist at the time said the rivalry between the two is "now out in the open" and described it as "ugly". In 2013 Christian Parisot, the president of the Modigliani Institute, responsible for the Catalogue of Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani,
4070-564: The podcast This is Love released an episode, "Blue," about Klein and his work. A 2021 short novel, Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton, is built around the life and art of Yves Klein. Alongside works by Andy Warhol and Willem de Kooning , Klein's painting RE 46 (1960) was among the top-five sellers at Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art sale in May 2006. His monochromatic blue sponge painting sold for $ 4,720,000. Previously, his painting RE I (1958) had sold for $ 6,716,000 at Christie's New York in November 2000. In 2008, MG 9 (1962),
4144-451: The previous years. Yves Peintures anticipated his first two shows of oil paintings, at the Club des Solitaires, Paris, October 1955 and Yves: Proposition monochromes at Gallery Colette Allendy, February 1956. Public responses to these shows, which displayed orange, yellow, red, pink and blue monochromes, deeply disappointed Klein, as people went from painting to painting, linking them together as
4218-438: The producer of a catalogue raisonné may have considerable power to determine whether a particular work is regarded as authentic or not. The inclusion of an artwork in the catalogue raisonné can be considered as a mark of authenticity and the inclusion in or exclusion from a respected catalogue can have a considerable effect on the market price of a work, amounting in some cases to large sums of money. Inclusion has been called
4292-419: The producers continues to meet periodically as new works are discovered or submitted to them for their consideration. Members of the public, museums and galleries can all propose work for the consideration of the producers. For most submissions, the works are ordinarily submitted to the producers alongside historic photographs, exhibition catalogues, dealer’s records, and other archival documentation to evidence
4366-493: The progress of art history." The reality of more than one body creating competing catalogue raisonné can sometimes lead to rivalries that can led to anomalous listings. During the process of authenticating a waterscape by Pierre-Auguste Renoir currently on display at Picton Castle , two of the artist's competing catalogue producers, the Wildenstein Institute and Bernheim-Jeune , reached different conclusions about
4440-531: The prominence of an artwork. When such documentation doesn't exist, works can be considered using scientific evidence and forensic techniques. Producers are free to define their policies for inclusion and may include works in the catalogue raisonné based on their own educated opinions and professional experience. The College Art Association and the Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association have both created protocols and best practice for
4514-428: The rain at 70 miles per hour with a canvas tied to the roof of his car, and canvases with patterns of soot created by scorching the canvas with gas burners. Klein and Arman were continually involved with each other creatively, both as Nouveaux Réalistes and as friends. Both from Nice, the two worked together for many years and Arman even named his son, Yves Arman , after Yves Klein, who was his godfather. Sometimes
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#17328560559844588-498: The reality of their time. They were the inventor of the décollage technique (the opposite of collages), in particular through the use of lacerated posters—a technique mastered by François Dufrene, Jacques Villeglé, Mimmo Rotella and Raymond Hains. Often these artists worked collaboratively and it was their intention to present their artworks in the city of Paris anonymously. Nouveau réalistes made extensive use of collage and assemblage , using real objects incorporated directly into
4662-484: The same authority for authentication as the producers of catalogue raisonné . These organisations are usually made up of the descendants of the artist, members of an artists foundation, or other academic bodies. When works are submitted for consideration to the producers of an artist's catalogue raisonné the works are normally returned to the owner once the process has concluded. The Wildenstein Institute, for example, had
4736-429: The sound half of the symphony, freezing during the silence". Although Klein had painted monochromes as early as 1949, and held the first private exhibition of this work in 1950, his first public showing was the publication of the artist's book Yves Peintures in November 1954. Parodying a traditional catalogue raisonné , the book featured a series of intense monochromes linked to various cities he had lived in during
4810-460: The work and acknowledging a debt to the readymades of Marcel Duchamp . But the New Realism movement has often been compared to the pop art movement in New York for their use and critique of mass-produced commercial objects ( Villeglé 's ripped cinema posters, Arman 's collections of detritus and trash), although Nouveau Réalisme maintained closer ties with Dada than with pop art. "The new realists"
4884-446: The works of an artist or group of artists and can contain all works or a selection of works categorised by different parameters such as medium or period. A catalogue raisonné is normally produced by the artist or by a committee of family members, experts or academics, collectively known as "producers". The catalogue ordinarily contains a list of characteristics of an artwork such as the title, year of production, dimensions, medium and
4958-456: The world between themselves; Arman chose the earth, Pascal, words, while Klein chose the ethereal space surrounding the planet, which he then proceeded to sign: With this famous symbolic gesture of signing the sky, Klein had foreseen, as in a reverie, the thrust of his art from that time onwards—a quest to reach the far side of the infinite. In early 1948, Klein was exposed to Max Heindel 's 1909 text The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception and pursued
5032-423: Was a figurative style painter, while his mother had an interest in abstract expressionism. From 1942 to 1946, Klein studied at the École Nationale de la Marine Marchande and the École Nationale des Langues Orientales. At this time, he became friends with Arman (Armand Fernandez) and Claude Pascal and started to paint. At the age of nineteen, Klein and his friends lay on a beach in the south of France, and divided
5106-481: Was a joy to 'International Blue' that we weren't sure we could convey any more, the feeling of being in love with something like Yves Klein, to pass on the joy of that colour and that vividness – we weren't sure if we still had it in us. It sounds quite young." In 2017, the MoMA - and WNYC -produced contemporary art podcast A Piece of Work hosted by Abbi Jacobson had an episode focused on Klein's blue monochromes. In 2018,
5180-551: Was a photomontage in which the large tarpaulin, held by artist friends, Klein leaped onto was removed from the final image. Klein's work revolved around a Zen -influenced concept he came to describe as "le Vide" (the Void). Klein's Void is a nirvana-like state that is void of worldly influences; a neutral zone where one is inspired to pay attention to one's own sensibilities, and to "reality" as opposed to "representation". Klein presented his work in forms that were recognized as art—paintings,
5254-487: Was close to the French Communist Party , and defined this young movement in 1948: “A current is emerging which, without denying the achievements of modern culture and technology, denies the primacy of formal research, advocates a return to objective reality and to the subject, and emphasizes the social content of all reality". André Fougeron really launched the movement with Les Parisiennes au Marché , exhibited at
5328-490: Was in a Paris art gallery in 1960, with only ten performing musicians. Singer Sahra Motalebi described it as "The reality is that it’s like a kind of bizarre primordial universe chorus. It’s not like a note you’ve ever heard." Klein himself compared the sound of his symphony to screams. For the first performance in Paris, Klein invited three naked women, whom he called "living brushes", who "covered themselves in his signature deep blue paint and pressed their bodies on paper during
5402-527: Was inaugurated in December 1959. Klein celebrated the commission by travelling to Cascia , Italy, to place an ex-voto offering at the Saint Rita Monastery . "May all that emerges from me be beautiful," he prayed. The offering took the form of a small transparent plastic box containing three compartments; one filled with IKB pigment, one filled with pink pigment, and one with gold leaf inside. The container
5476-490: Was only rediscovered in 1980. Klein's last two exhibitions at Iris Clert's were Vitesse Pure et Stabilité Monochrome ( Sheer Speed and Monochrome Stability ), November 1958, a collaboration with Jean Tinguely , of kinetic sculptures, and Bas-Reliefs dans une Forêt d'Éponges ( Bas-Reliefs in a Sponge Forest ), June 1959, a collection of sponges that Klein had used to paint IKB canvases, mounted on steel rods and set in rocks that he'd found in his parents' garden. Despite
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