IKB 79
Yves Klein
YVES KLEIN, c.1959, PAINT ON CANVAS ON PLYWOOD
Eventually, Yves Klein would paint without pigment or brush but in 1959, Klein was still fascinated with his signature colour blue alone. #002FA7, better known as International Klein Blue, is a particularly vibrant ultramarine; a mixture of gouache-like industrial paint with a highly volatile fixative that, when correctly combined, produces an effect of uncommon depth upon canvas. Klein painted nearly 200 of these monochromes, rejecting any semblance of representation to attain pure creative freedom. A shaman and a marketeer, Klein’s work was deeply spiritual on a personal level, but he never lost sight of the commercial art world. In 1957, he presented a collection of 11 seemingly identical blue monochromes, each with a different price that reflected their unique spirit. “'Each blue world of each painting, although the same blue and treated in the same way, presented a completely different essence and atmosphere. None resembled any other - no more than pictoral moments resemble each other - although all were of the same superior and subtle nature (marked by the immaterial)”