Alon Zakaim Fine Art

Yves Klein was born in Nice in 1928, his parents, Fred Klein and Marie Raymond, were both painters. During his studies at the École Nationale de la Marine Marchande and the École Nationale des Langues Orientales he became friends with Arman Fernandez and Claude Pascal and started to paint.

Between 1948 and 1952 Klein travelled extensively to Italy, Great Britain, Spain, and Japan before settling permanently in Paris in 1955. That year he was given a solo exhibition at the Club des Solitaires in Paris .

In 1956, Klein exhibited a group of monochrome paintings in ultramarine blue, a colour he patented as ‘International Klein Blue.’ This marked the beginning of his blue period. by 1957 he began using nude models as ‘iving paintbrushes’to create what he called ‘Anthopometries’. These works were created by nude models coated in blue paint rolling over paper on the floor and imprinting their images on the paper. He then went on to produce fire paintings, by torching asbestos pigmented canvas and water paintings made by leaving still wet works out in the rain.

In 1960 Klein founded a conceptual movement, ‘New Realism’ along with the art critic Pierre Restany. The first manifesto of the group was written in 1960 by Pierre Restany and signed by Arman, Klein, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, among others.

In 1961, Klein was given a retrospective at the Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany, and his first solo exhibition in the United States at the Leo Castelli Gallery, New York. In 1962, he executed a plaster cast of Arman and took part in the exhibition Antagonismes 2: L’Objet at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

Klein died suddenly of a heart attack on June 6, 1962.

Throughout his life Yves Klein was continually inspired by nature, and the elements of earth water air and fire. Pursuing themes of spirituality and immateriality, he used natural elements for his paintings including pure pigments, gold leaf, natural sponges, and ash. His aim was to detach the spirit of creation from objects and invest the process with a kind of bravura showmanship.

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