Yves Klein

Ever seeking the ethereal, the immaterial, the void, Yves Klein's memorising IKB 34 from 1961-62 is an alluring example of one of his widely celebrated International Klein Blue monochromes– a term patented by Klein the same year denoting space, purity and freedom.  The alluring and hypnotic colour, an electrically charged and seemingly infinite blue, has become synonymous with Klein's name and his art.  Startling in presence, IKB 34 is a statement on the authenticity and intrinsic value in a work of art.

The Blue Epoch for Klein was officially inaugurated in January 1957 by an exhibition at Guido Le Noci's Galleria Apollinaire in Milan entitled L'Epoca Blu.  Klein exhibited eleven blue monochromes of the same size but with different prices – making the powerful statement that each work of art possessed a uniqueness of its own despite their apparent similarity and their comparable material worth.  Klein insisted that the individual value of each work resides in the creativity instilled in it, that each work holds an inherent sensibility or aura which is immaterially present and irreproducible.  As Pierre Restany observed, "To Klein, in his pursuit of the absolute, the Blue appeared as an approach to imminent reality, which is infinite; this immaterial energy is self-sufficient" (in Exhibition Catalogue, Houston, Institute for the Arts, Rice University, Yves Klein 1928-1962: A Retrospective, p. 15). 

Anti-illusionistic and anti-referential, the blue monochrome is ostensibly the most pure of compositions, yet hidden beneath the rich layers of textured pigment lies a profound and complex conceptual belief structure that has influenced generations of subsequent artists and established Klein as one of the pre-eminent artists of his generation.  The monochrome works are a synthesis of the modern and the post-modern: they engage with abstract art, taking non-representational art to its logical conclusion, whilst challenging the viewer's conception of what art is, or should be. For Yves Klein, the monochrome did not infer simplicity, instead he understood it as depicting space without limits.  It provided the viewer with a transcendental experience of infinity, of the Void, as Klein referred to it. He wanted to induce independent sensations, feelings and reactions in the viewer, without giving them a depicted object or an abstract sign as a starting point, solely through the effect and qualities of the colour.  In art historical terms the blue monochromes are a rejection of l'art informel, forcing the viewer to participate in their meaning.  As Klein was to write in "The Monochrome Adventure", he wanted the painting to "invade the space of the observer" (ibid, p. 44).

In the IKB works, Klein employed a roller to apply uniform layers of paint, thereby ostracizing the personalised artist's touch from the picture surface.  Laying the foundations of a 'school of sensibility' Klein encouraged all those who wanted to learn the new language of art and dubbed himself 'Yves le Monochrome'.  Klein's seductive IKB 34 embodies his romanticized notion of the immaterial world and holds true to Gaston Bachelard's words: "First there is nothing, then there is a deep nothing; then there is a blue depth" (ibid, p. 11).