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Yves Klein (1928-1964)

  • Writer: Holli Kalina
    Holli Kalina
  • Nov 16, 2024
  • 2 min read

Yves Klein, a French artist, was born in 1928 in Nice. His first love was the Japanese martial art Judo, which he studied and practiced to the level of Fourth Dan. Whilst Klein studied Judo in Japan, he taught French to American and Japanese Students and began his exploration of monochrome art. His use of blue paint began in 1957 which he described as his “Époque bleue’”


Planetary Relief (1961)

 

Inspiration for the colour of the triangles used in my screen printing arose from the blue paint that he used, which is so indelibly linked to Kleine that it has been copyrighted and is known as International Yves Klein Blue.


Klein is possibly most famous, or infamous depending upon your point of view, for his series Anthropometries which he created using nude female models painted in his blue paint, which he then pressed and dragged around large canvases in lieu of his brush.  Anthropometry is the study of human body measurements, an early tool of Anthropology, so obviously this lends itself to painting women in blue paint and rolling them about on canvas (sarcasm intended).

 

Despite criticism from some quarters, one of his models, Elena Palumbo-Mosca, when interviewed in 2016 at the age of 82 was adamant that she and the other women were not exploited by the artist.   "I was not a paintbrush because, in spite of all, I did use my brain," she said (BBC, 2016). At an event in a Paris art gallery in 1960 three of his models took part in a live demonstration of his art, covering their bodies in paint in front of an audience of formally attired onlookers whilst Klein conducted the evening in a formal dinner jacket and bow tie.

 

Perhaps it is just that French culture is different from that of the British, perhaps it was a sign of the times, or perhaps I have a far more conservative perspective, but I am uncomfortable with this work, and it is not because of the nudity per se, I find the process, which assigns women the status of a paintbrush and objectifying and degrading. That Klein’s models were almost exclusively female tells of either Klein’s proclivities or of an intrinsically patriarchal art establishment.

 



© Harry Shunk and Janos Kender J.Paul Getty Trust. The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. (2014.R.20)

© The Estate of Yves Klein c/o ADAGP, Paris



Untitled Anthropometry (1960)


 

BBC, 2016. The woman who painted her body for artist Yves Klein[viewed 16/11/2024]. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37632356


 

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