Yves Klein

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yves Klein

Yves Klein during the work on the Gelsenkirchen Opera, 1959
Born April 28, 1928(1928-04-28)
Nice
Died June 6, 1962 (aged 34)
Paris, France
Nationality French
Field Artist
Movement Nouveau Réalisme
Works IKB 191, 1962

Yves Klein (28 April 1928 - 6 June 1962) was a French artist and is considered an important figure in post-war European art. New York critics of Klein's time classify him as neo-Dada, but other critics, such as Thomas McEvilley in an essay submitted to Artforum in 1982, have since classified Klein as an early, though "enigmatic," Post-Modernist.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Klein was born in Nice, in the Alpes-Maritimes department of France. His parents, Fred Klein and Marie Raymond, were both painters. From 1942 to 1946, Klein studied at the École Nationale de la Marine Marchande and the École Nationale des Langues Orientales and began practicing judo. At this time, he became friends with Arman Fernandez and Claude Pascal and started to paint. Klein composed his first Symphonie monotone in 1947. During the years 1948 to 1952, he traveled to Italy, Great Britain, Spain, and Japan. In Japan, he became a master (4th dan) at judo. In 1955, Klein settled permanently in Paris, where he was given a solo exhibition at the Club des Solitaires. His monochrome paintings were shown at the Galerie Colette Allendy and Galerie Iris Clert in Paris, in 1956. In 1960 he founded the New Realism movement along with art critic Pierre Restany. Klein died in Paris of a heart attack in 1962 at the age of 34, shortly before the birth of his son.

[edit] Artwork

[edit] Monochrome works

IKB 191, 1962.
IKB 191, 1962.

Although Klein had painted monochromes as early as 1949, and held private exhibitions of this work as early as 1950, the first public showing of his work was the publication of the artist's book Yves: Peintures in November 1954. Featuring a series of intense monochromes linked to various cities he had lived in during the previous years, the book 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. These shows, displaying orange, yellow, red, pink and blue monochromes, deeply disappointed Klein, as people went from painting to painting, linking them together as a sort of mosaic.

"From the reactions of the audience, however, (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." Hannah Weitemeier[2]

The next exhibition, 'Proposte monochrome, epoca blu' (Proclamation of the Blue Epoch) at the Gallery Apollinaire Milan, February 1957, featured 11 identical blue canvases, using ultramarine pigment suspended in a synthetic resin 'Rhodopas'. Discovered with the help of Edouard Adam, a parisian paint dealer, the effect was to retain the brilliance of the pigment which tended to become dull when suspended in linseed oil. Klein later patented this recipe to maintain the "authenticity of the pure idea."[3] This colour, reminiscent of the lapis lazuli used to paint the Madonna's robes in medieval paintings, was to become famous as 'International Klein Blue' (IKB).

The show was a critical and commercial success, travelling to Paris, Düsseldorf and London. The parisan exhibition, at the Iris Clert Gallery, May 1957, became a seminal happening[4]; As well as 1001 blue balloons being released to mark the opening, blue postcards were sent out using IKB stamps that Klein had bribed the postal service to accept as legitimate.[5] An exhibition of tubs of blue pigment and fire paintings were held concurrently at Gallery Collette Allendy.

Despite 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 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 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 god-father.

Sometimes 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, which consisted of a single sustained chord.[6][7]

Alongside works by Andy Warhol and Willem De Kooning, Yves 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.[8]

[edit] Immaterial works

Le Vide displayed at the Galerie Iris Clert
Le Vide displayed at the Galerie Iris Clert
“ Recently my work with color has led me, in spite of myself, to search little by little, with some assistance (from 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. ”

In another act that became known as an Yves Klein artwork, he offered and managed to sell empty spaces in 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 order to restore the "natural order" that he had unbalanced by selling the empty space (that was now not "empty" anymore), Klein threw the gold into the river Seine.

[edit] Aero works

Le Saut dans le Vide (Leap into the Void)
Le Saut dans le Vide (Leap into the Void)

Klein is also well known for a photograph, Saut dans le vide (Leap into the Void) [3] , originally published in the 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" was 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.

Klein's work revolved around a Zen-influenced concept he came to describe as "le Vide" or in English: 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 ones own sensibilities, and to "reality" as opposed to "representation". Klein presented his work in forms that were recognized as art - paintings, 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: the image of their absence. Klein's work strongly refers to a theoretical/arthistorical context as well as to philosophy/metaphysics and with his work he aimed to combine these. He tried to make his audience experience a state where an idea could simultaneously be "felt" as well as "understood".

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ McEvilley, T. Yves Klein: Messenger of the Age of Space. Artforum 20, no.5. January, 1982. pp. 38-51.
  2. ^ Yves Klein, Weitemeier, Taschen 1994, p15
  3. ^ Quoted in Yves Klein, Weitemeier, Taschen 1994, p19
  4. ^ Yves Klein Archive [1]
  5. ^ [2] The Formidable Blue Stamp of Yves Klein, John Held Jr.
  6. ^ The Monotone Symphony. Retrieved on 2007-05-12.
  7. ^ Yves Klein, France. Retrieved on 2007-05-12.
  8. ^ Judd Tully (May 9, 2006), Warhols, Judds Drive $143M Sale at Christie's, ARTINFO, <http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/15469/warhols-judds-drive-143m-sale-at-christies/?page=1>. Retrieved on 23 April 2008 
  9. ^ Stich, Sidra. Yves Klein. Hayward Gallery. London, 1994.

[edit] External links