Why is yves klein important

He produces his first Monogolds , using fine gold in their composition, a material as precious as emblematic. On 23 rd February, at his home, Yves makes the imprints of Rotraut and Jacqueline who transfer the blue traces of their bodies on a large sheet of white paper, in the presence of Pierre Restany. The attendants name the work Celebrating a new Anthropometric Era. The session opens on the Monotone-Silence Symphony , conducted by Yves and performed by three violins, three cellos and three choristers.

After the session, a general debate is held, with the assistance of Pierre Restany and Georges Mathieu. On the occasion of a trip from Paris to Nice, he fitted on the roof of his car a sheet of paper freshly painted in blue and leaves it to the meteorological elements to act on it. On 23 rd March, at the mouth of the river Loup , he uses plant product imprints and the river water in which he dips some of the works.

Critics will later refer to this text as the first manifesto of the movement. This session will remain the only one ever held by the association. It is the first time the colour triad is shown. Yves reckons that this event marks the end of his activity in judo. Leap into the void, 5, rue Gentil-Bernard, Fontenay-aux-Roses, october The title of this work of Yves Klein according to his newspaper "Sunday, November 27th, ", is: "A man in space! The painter of space throws himself into the void!

The nine members sign the nine copies of the Incorporation agreement. By such gesture, Klein integrates the New Realists to his artwork. Radical artist, Klein is a model for the European artists of the group Zero.

In January, , the Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld proposes the first institutional retrospective of his work. Never hesitating to use his image and his private life as material for his art, Yves Klein participates in the construction of his myth. His collaboration with many photographers and directors testifies to this. As he undertakes the Relief portraits of his friends Arman, Claude Pascal and Martial Raysse, he dies from a heart attack on June 6th, , at the age of Besides an exceptional work, he leaves far-sighted writings that will guide the visitor of this exhibition.

The retrospective is organised in close cooperation between Yves and Paul Wember, the museum director. Yves Klein realizes there his most important retrospective.

He exhibited blue, pink and gold monochromes, his Air Architecture project, the Empty room , an immaterial space that has since been part of the permanent collection of the museum. The Wall of Fire on the outside, is made up of 50 burners aligned. The lighting of the elements, in the dark, is spectacular. The rosettes in the form of daisies show, if approached, the decomposed colours of the flame: blue, gold and pink.

Not far from the Wall is the flame of the Fire Sculpture. On February 26th, the closing date of the exhibition, Klein made the first Fire Paintings. A large sheet of paper or cardboard is offered to the flames of the Bunsen beaks, and bears the mark of the rosettes alone, or rosettes accompanied by the trace of The Fire Sculpture.

This work was only discovered following an earthquake in September , and authenticated by Pierre Restany in They settle at the Chelsea Hotel. Yves writes The Chelsea Manifesto in English. On 17 th May, he presents before representatives of the New-York art world his films on Anthropometry and on the Krefeld exhibition. The New Realists exhibition organised by Pierre Restany takes place upon the opening of the Gallery belonging to Jeanine de Goldschmidt, his wife to be.

From the United States, in a letter sent to the critic, Yves expresses his disagreement with the text, in which he can see no link to Dada. On 5 th June, the publication of issue No. The end of the French text is burnt as requested by the artist. On 17 th and 18 th July, the cameraman Paolo Cavara films scenes from Anthropometries at the Rive Droite Gallery as a preparation for the film. On the 19 th , the Centre manager bans the session because it shows naked models.

On 27 th July, Yves writes to the architect Philip Johnson about a project of water and fire fountains suggested by engineers for the International New-York Exhibition, and which he wrongly considers as an misappropriation of his ideas. We can surely say that Klein was fascinated with the idea of immateriality. The work itself was immaterial and therefore, invisible.

The people who chose to buy it received a cheque stating the ownership of the work. Payment could only be made in gold. Right after receiving the gold, Klein threw a part of it into the Seine or the sea. People who bought the work were asked to burn the cheques they had priorly received.

Finally, the buyers ended up with nothing, so the immaterial piece Klein had in mind was achieved. The Zone of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility is a fine example of a proto-conceptual artwork. For Klein, color was the way to get in touch with the immaterial and infinite. He began painting his monochromes in Klein even claimed that in the future artists would only use one color in their works.

During his artistic career, Yves Klein painted around two hundred blue paintings. Blue was infinite like the sky. Blue had no dimensions. Here, the artist exhibited only his monochrome works, including his blue paintings.

In , he presented eleven of his blue paintings at the Gallery Apollinaire in Milan, Italy. The blue paintings were exhibited 20 cm away from the wall so that it seemed like they were levitating in space. The canvases only showed a saturated blue color, so the viewers could get lost in the colored space of blue paintings.

Klein also painted many sculptures in his famous shade we see in the blue paintings. Klein was never in any danger and, depending on who you believe, was caught by friends — edited out later — in a tarpaulin; or his fall was cushioned, fittingly, by a stack of judo mats. The image, however, retains its magic and remains one of the most famous performance photographs. Klein was a pivotal figure who operated during a critical period in cultural history. Reacting against the existential introspection found in abstract art movements in the period immediately following the Second World War, his innovative outlook led him to erase divisions between life and art.

Shifting the perception of audiences, he pushed the possibilities of what art could be in new, exciting and frequently unexpected directions, taking the European art world by storm.

When he returned to Paris in the mid s, he opened a Judo club and wrote a book called L es Fondements du judo The Foundations of Judo. Shrouded by a velvet blue curtain, he allowed just ten visitors to enter at a time, where they were met with a succession of empty white rooms. Despite the impressive turnout, Klein caused an upheaval amongst the guests who came to admire his work. Yves Klein was light years ahead of his time, and continued to tear down the boundaries of conceptual art.

It really is true… Yves Klein used colours other than blue! As a devout catholic, the artist was very religious and interested in philosophy, which inspired his infatuation with the sky. It is also due to his interests in religious doctrine that he use gold and rose in his works.

Along with blue, these colours were particularly important in religious iconography, often recalling the holy trinity: gold for the Father, blue for the Son and pink for the Holy Spirit. He created different triptychs using these three colours, including his work Ex-voto which served as a shrine to Rita de Cascia, as a testament to his devotion to this saint. He was deeply affected by the horrific photographs of Hiroshima, where unrecognisable images of bodies were shared across the globe.

In , Klein began his Fire Painting series, where he attempted to imprint traces of fire onto various surfaces. Klein learned to control fire at the Gaz de France Test Centre in Saint-Denis, where the availability of industrial equipment allowed him to adjust the power of the flame.