Yves Klein:
loved magic as well as the arcane rituals of the mystical Rosicrucian society
a conduit towards an idea about immaterial terrain, bridges into a great void
medium = crucial to message,
medium is ultramarine blue both like and unlike the colour that resonated through medieval and Renaissance art
IKB 79 (1959), Yves Klein, Paint on canvas on plywood
rejecting the idea of representation in painting and therefore of attaining creative freedom
uneven surface ➜ finer and more uniform in texture
His widow Rotraut Klein-Moquay numbered all the known blue monochromes IKB 1 to IKB 194, sequence did not reflect their chronological order.
International Klein Blue
quality close to pure space and he associated it with immaterial values beyond what can be seen or touched
'a Blue in itself, disengaged from all functional justification'
"leftovers from the creative process, the ashes"
Ultramarine pigment
‘incandescent’
preserve the luminosity that he considered the magic of the colour
"Blue is the invisible becoming visible. Blue has no dimensions, it is beyond the dimensions of which other colours partake,"
Ultramarine
opaque blockages, ultramarine shimmers and glows, seemingly opening up to immaterial realms.
Klein’s blue monochromes are not paintings but experiences, passageways leading to the void.”
blank monochromes:
⚬ seemed to rebuff expressionist art.
⚬ all have a vertiginous quality that seems to suck us out of reality towards another, immaterial dimension
■ Meditation - azure sky
⚬ pure colour offered a way of using art not as a means of painting a picture, but as
a way of creating a spiritual, almost alchemical experience, beyond time,
approaching the immaterial
depthless monochromes and obsession with ‘the void’
⚬ represented a break with angst-ridden abstraction ( popular in WWII)
⚬ understood as expressions of the threat of nuclear holocaust
pious Catholic
⚬ religious art - blue often represents eternity and godliness
⚬ Ultramarine not overtly christian, nut sensuousness of IKB suggest spirituality.
⚬ “At first there is nothing, then there is a profound nothingness, after that a blue profundity.”
epoca blu
a transcendent vision of the boundlessness of space and dreams.
inspired by the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, whom he quoted:
⚬ ‘First there is nothing, then a depth of nothingness, then a profundity of blue.’"
Anthropométries, (1960), Yves Klein
"The works were created in performance, with nude women playing the role of human brushes commanded by Klein. Some of the performances were accompanied by Klein’s Monotone Symphony: twenty minutes of one continuous sound, ‘deprived’ of beginning and end, and twenty minutes of silence. Under Klein’s direction and before his eyes, the artworks took shape without his touch. He was conductor or director as much as painter, as the blue paint covering the women’s bodies transferred to the canvas with no intervening brush, roller or other artists’ tool."
Untitled Anthropometry (ANT 100), 1960, Yves Klein
Dry pigment and synthetic resin on paper mounted on canvas
Sponge Reliefs, 1960
"working tool all of a sudden became a primary medium for me."
Planetary Reliefs, 1957 - 1961
"I am the painter of space. I am not an abstract painter but, on the contrary, a figurative artist, and a realist. Let us be honest, to paint space, I must be in position, I must be in space. "
Refers to the cosmos and the earth, recall the appearance of topographic maps and lunar landscapes.
References
Sooke, A. (2014) 'Yves Klein: The man who invented a colour', BBC Culture, August 28. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140828-the-man-who-invented-a-colour
Phaidon. (n.d.) 'What was it with Yves Klein and Blue?', Available at: https://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2017/april/28/what-was-it-with-yves-klein-and-blue/
Tate. 'Yves Klein, IKB 79, 1959', Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/klein-ikb-79-t01513
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