Yves Klein

Learn More about Yves Klein

• Klein on Google
• Klein at MoMA

“I am the painter of space. ……. Let’s be honest,
in order to paint space, I must put myself on the spot, in space
itself.”– Yves Klein

Yves Klein, an artist and judo master, was born in Nice, France
in 1928 and died from a heart attack at the age of 34 in 1962, in Paris,
where he made his career. During his short life, he became one of the
leaders of European Pop Art, which is
known as “Nouveau Realisme“,
and his work has had a lasting influence on both Minimal
and Conceptual artists.

Klein’s body of work was extremely diverse and included monochrome
paintings done in several colors; particularly the blue
paintings painted in Klein’s signature color,
International Klein Blue (IKB see an example.);
the anthropometries (see video above), which were imprints taken directly from the human
body; fire paintings, which were made with a flame-thrower; sponge
sculptures, which were often painted with IKB;
portrait sculptures of his friends and fellow artists, cast from life;
proposals for architectural projects; and photographs.

Legend
has it that when Yves Klein was eighteen years old, he was sunbathing on
the beach in Nice with his friends when they decided to divide up the
world between them. Klein chose the air and the sky. He then
claimed this boundless space by writing his name in the air. Later
in his life, he often called this his greatest and most beautiful work.

There is a famous altered photograph called ” Leap
into the Void” of Klein jumping off an old house in a suburb of
Paris. In explaining this photograph Klein said that the reason for
his action was “In order to paint space, I owe it to myself to go
there, to that very space.” The moment of weightlessness that
Klein experienced was of very short duration and of course an instant
after the photo was taken he landed on the ground. Nonetheless, it
expressed his interest in air, levitation, and immateriality.

Remarkably, although Klein’s career as an artist lasted for only the
last eight years of his life (1954-1962), he, like Duchamp
before him, was able to change the concept of a work of art and art in
general, as well as the concept of the exhibition of art and the role of
the artist. His work combined the conceptual depth of Duchamp with
the ability to create individual works of extraordinary beauty.

Klein is best known for the single-colored IKB
blue paintings. He believed that by adopting the
monochromatic aesthetic he would be able to remove all expressive and
representative elements from his work. To Klein, IKB signified the
idea of immaterialness, and particularly the
spiritual notion of art. His approach to painting was similar to the
way a priest might go about a religious ceremony. Painting for Klein
became a process of giving himself over to a magic ritual in order to
satisfy a spiritual need. Born a Catholic, Klein never broke with
the Catholic faith, despite his radical position in the European
avant-garde.

He explored themes of spirituality and immateriality on a highly
conceptual level. An example of this is a series of works done in
1959 which questioned the economic value of the artist’s work. In
these works, he sold a number of pieces of immaterial space for different
prices, although the works appeared to be identical. The collector
of each work was then required to burn the receipt for the work and throw
half of the gold payment for the work in the Seine. If the collector
wanted to resell the work at some future time, it had to be priced at
twice the initial purchase price, although, of course, there was now no
proof of ownership. This seemingly absurd series of acts involving
an immaterial work which was actually beyond possession, not only
questioned the nature of art, but also the transactions that underpin the
workings of the art world. In many respects, these works anticipated the
development of Conceptual Art
in the late 1960’s.

In
1960, Klein began a series of paintings called the “Anthropometries”,
by using nude female models as paint brushes. Covering their bodies
with IKB, Klein would then have the models press there bodies against a
painting surface, which of course would leave a blue impression of the
female form. These were first done in the studio, but later became a
form of performance art, done in public accompanied by a string orchestra
playing classical music.

In 1961, Klein began a series of fire paintings using a
flame-thrower. These works continued his exploration of air and the
immaterial, but with the addition of fire as an essential element.
These experiments with fire resulted in paintings that are strangely
beautiful.

In 1962, two years after marrying and becoming a father, Klein died
from a heart attack.

A retrospective of his work was held in 1983 at the Musée National
d’Art Moderne (National Modern Art Museum), at the Centre Georges
Pompidou, in Paris. In 2000, another large retrospective was held at
the Nice Modern and Contemporary Art Museum. The retrospective
traveled to the Luigi Pecci Contemporary Art Museum of Prato, Italy in
late 2000 and early 2001.