Yves Klein

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Lore & Background

Klein was born in Nice on 28 April 1928. 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. Klein received no formal training in art. From 1942 to 1946, he studied at the École Nationale de la Marine Marchande and the École Nationale des Langues Orientales. At nineteen, he and his friends Arman and Claude Pascal lay on a beach in the south of France and divided the world: Arman chose the earth, Pascal words, and Klein the ethereal space surrounding the planet, which he signed. In early 1948, Klein read Max Heindel's 1909 text The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception and pursued membership with an American Rosicrucian society. While at language school, Klein began practicing judo. He traveled to Japan in 1953 and at age 25 became a master at judo, receiving the rank of yondan (4th dan black belt) from the Kodokan—the first European to do so. Later that year he became technical director of the Spanish judo team. In 1954 he wrote a book on judo called Les Fondements du judo and settled permanently in Paris. Between 1947 and 1948, Klein conceived his Monotone Symphony (1949, formally Monotone Silence Symphony): a single 20-minute sustained D major chord followed by 20 minutes of silence. The first performance was in a Paris art gallery in 1960 with only ten musicians; Klein invited three naked women as 'living brushes' who covered themselves in blue paint and pressed their bodies on paper during the sound half, freezing during the silence. Klein's first public monochrome showing was the book Yves Peintures in November 1954. After disappointing public responses to his early monochrome shows, he concentrated on one single primary color: blue. In January 1957 at the Gallery Apollinaire, Milan, he exhibited 11 identical blue canvases using ultramarine pigment suspended in a synthetic resin 'Rhodopas', later known as International Klein Blue (IKB). For his April 1958 exhibition at Iris Clert Gallery, he showed nothing—called La spécialisation de la sensibilité à l'état matière première en sensibilité picturale stabilisée, Le Vide—removing everything, painting surfaces white, and staging an elaborate entrance. 3,000 people queued up. Later he decorated the Gelsenkirchen Opera House with vast blue murals, the largest 20 metres by 7 metres.

Reader's Guide

Klein's significance comes from his radical approach to art as pure sensibility. After early monochrome shows were misunderstood as decoration, he focused exclusively on blue, creating International Klein Blue (IKB) using ultramarine pigment in synthetic resin 'Rhodopas' to retain brilliance. His 1957 Milan exhibition featured 11 identical blue canvases priced differently, each buyer seeing something unique. His 1958 'The Void' exhibition at Iris Clert Gallery—an empty white room with elaborate entrance procedures including republican guards and blue cocktails—drew 3,000 visitors. He created Anthropometry works using naked female models as 'living brushes' covered in blue paint. His Monotone Symphony (1949) of a 20-minute D major chord followed by 20 minutes of silence was first performed in 1960 with ten musicians and three models. Klein's judo training in Japan (earning 4th dan black belt in 1953, first European to do so) and interest in Rosicrucianism and Zen Buddhism informed his use of ritual to reach abstraction. His work influenced minimal art, pop art, and performance art. He died on 6 June 1962.

Did You Know?

• Klein became the first European to earn a 4th dan black belt in judo from the Kodokan, at age 25 in 1953.
• His Monotone Symphony (1949) consists of a single 20-minute sustained D major chord followed by 20 minutes of silence.
• For his 1958 exhibition 'The Void', Klein emptied the gallery, painted everything white, and 3,000 people queued to enter.
• Klein used naked female models as 'living brushes'—covering them in blue paint and pressing them onto canvases—calling these works Anthropometry.
• He deposited a Soleau envelope for the recipe of International Klein Blue to maintain 'the authenticity of the pure idea.'