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Yves Klein – ANTHROPOMETRIE dezember 2007 wien – salazar quas

Despite having spent an amazingly short amount of time on the planet, there is a plethora of different circumstances that have aided the extremely accelerated and pinnac le-reaching level of recognition and accomplishment in the artistic career of Yves Klein not least of which being the son of recognised french painters Marie Raymond and Fred Klein. Add to this a master of cross-cultural disciplines, a member of the french knighthood, and a free-thinker at a crucial time in history and we have an anomoly of a person who spent his artistic career developing new methods and experimenting ultimately with the art of producing artworks without directly involving his person in the process..the Anthropometrie was exemplary of this.. A dedicated and educated practitioner Klein kept a very broad set of interests within the view of his personal and personally affectating perspective. His dedication to and education in the oriental arts and practices, his university education in the study of marine life, and his eventual convergence into the working of colour paints onto canvas combined to provide Klein a view and realisation methodic which soon separated itself from all other conventional practices at the time. This unique set of philosophicallyaffected methods included not only the highly physical element of martial arts discipline Judo into the theatricality and physicality of his performative expositions delivering some of the first such action exhibitions in Europe at the time, but also a rapid progression of philsophical developments from his first composition of the monotone symphony in 1947 through the entire handling during the following 7years of his short life of the hallowed „Immaterial“ period.. indeed as a piece of work his Life itself could be said to be a well-constructed composition balanc ing elements from different worlds and beliefs into one being.. a being which in crossing boundaries

neglected, however, certain moralistic or perhaps agnostic issues in his strident search for more assertive realisations of the Immaterial. The Immaterial has proven, to Klein, to be the basis for his elevation in self-belief and his successful application to the international art market. With a combination of East and West, plus a desire from childhood on to somehow retain a possession of the Sky and the Water (a childish wish made on the beach at the age of seven with his best friends - a wish that was to later prove to be a staid inspiration and a dream he would come absurdly close to realising), his anti-formulaic and highly improvisationa l approach would prove not only to be his testing ground for idealistic concepts but a battlefield of the Arts and (versus) earthly elements. . Falling short of regarding Klein as a holy spirit, he was nonetheless awarded a knighthood by the Order of St.Christoph in Nice and claimed too to have experimented with various forms of magic and the occult. A level of development which remained rather minimal but which however illustrate how from a young age Klein had established very little fear on investigating and formulating new ways to means... unqualified and certainly experimental methods to open new avenues of possiblities and potentials which may have proven to better his own life path or offer fresh options on where that path may or could lead to. After meeting Claude Pascal, Klein began conventional painting and soon after established with Pierre Restany the manifestato of the New Realists focussing his vibrant attentions on the practice of the extreme avant guard along with Fluxus as a leading contemporary practice to the American Pop Art scene of the time and with strong links to Dadaism. The New Realism brought the members together on the basis of a new awareness called „collective singularity“ (due to, or despite of, their differences); advocated a return to „reality“ as opposed to abstract painting and used exterior objects as symbols of the reality of their time.. inventing in the doing the „decollage“ technique – the opposite of the collage. Klein himself opposed the term „New“ realism arguing the definition „new“ to be instantaneously redundant... a view indeed applicable to today’s „new Media Art“ whereby the very claiming for such a practice to be New is thus immediately defining it’s form as dated and no longer relevant or progressive..this argument today was perhaps conceived insynchronicity with the very birth of conceptual art applications and the time-based arts. Regardless of the various schools of developments one undertakes, Klein proved to be dedicated and genuine in his search for the more.. It is his action of 1958 – the widely self-public ised „Leap Into The Void“ that seemed to puncture the public’s mind and eye via Spectacle... to draw attention to himself and his train of thought and belief.. a belief in the reclamation or the effort to reclaim elements that otherwise are believed to belong to the earth... elements of Air... of the Abyss... of the space around us that we otherwise ignore and misplace as something that contains our beings but not more.. It is with this act that Klein moves away from purely monochromatic paintings and into a mental space of reaching; a reaching into a sensibility of the immaterial.

Six weeks after the Leap Klein organises the first séance Anthropometrique (anthropometric sessions) at a dinner given by the collector Robert Godet on Saint Louis Island (circa June 5th 1958). Here is the first (public) demonstration by Klein of a complete production... including string orchestra, naked models bathed in his own IKB blue paint, making their impressions on the canvas via their own bodily movements.. a choreography of sorts.. a choreography as pre-meditated and conducted by Klein – the first big step of removing himself as creator from the process of the creation. These anthropometries in their most primal form were, of course, of a completely unpredictable nature and painted in positive tone – and illustrate the unlimited will to let go of the painting process itself and let the fatalistic elements come together to create what will and what may be.. in this respect it is Klein’s own mentality that one is letting go of.. his aesthetic having been so confidently established with his unique monochrome blues prior to this.. that now priorities change from the controlled product of imagination realisation to the act itself---... the performative orchestration and that which ultimately produces without his own physical input.. in many respects Klein has now discarded the paintbrush and exchanged it for the space around – the space that occupies the room has now become his tools... his orchestration has now come to an almost telekinetic energy level of control and delegation onto which is drawn his own hand of power and creativity by way of remote control – by his way of command via voice and will, and without any mark of his hand itself on the paintings. This is claimed to be one of the first „happennings“ in Europe, later to be known as „Battles“. With the Battles, some heavy paint deposits plus spray of varnish are combined to produce a brilliant effect for the moving and dragging of the paintbrush models. During the performance the models drag each others bodies onto and along the canvas in a seemingly random form. This action simulates what may be perceived as a physical struggle between the players.

In an article on the Immaterial and the Parallel flow of Realism, Francois Perrin is quoted as saying „in our contemporary world....emphasis (is) on voicing the ephemeral as it constitutes a dominant aspect of our existence in this reality.“ Perrin continues to say that a show that takes place in physical reality, once dismantled, leaves immaterial traces on the minds of the spectators. (ref. DeBord: „reality emerges out of performance and performance is real“). For Klein himself first contact with the anthropometric image came much earlier near the beginning of his career (circa 1948) with the Hand and Feet T-Shirt paintings.. For Klein these early anthrompometrics were closely associated with the loss of innocence – an awakening of the consciousness and a delivery of his own self-realisations on a spiritual level. Quoting YK:.. „My hand and feet impregnated with color, I found myself confronting everything that was psychological in me. I had proof that I had five senses, that I knew how to get myself to function! And then I lost my childhood...“. Having felt at the time that his hands were no longer adequate to to work with the colour itself, his problem of distance in painting were solved. Indeed the development trail leading up to this performative grand evening would entail much studio experimentation, trying new combinations with his models and learning step by step to let go of the creative process to the elements that he himself had implemented and set in place. In creating the Anthropometric paintings there are 2 techniques involved: the Positive impression involving painted bodies being then layed onto the canvas; and the Negative image bringing the model’s body in front of the canvas only then to have the outline sprayed giving a strong ‚halo’ effect. Klein always affectated the Matt finish, sometimes a sheen is seen because of the thickness of paint applied to the bodies, and rarely but sometimes a voluntary varnish effect. With positives, Klein sometimes (though rarely) used industrial oil – primed canvasses to assert a thick & shiny finish.

Klein almost always used paper of substantial weight, and at times double layered to enhance the absorptive attribute. At other times he would use cloth rather similar to but softer than canvas cloth, to attain optimal retention of colour without undue spreading and hyper-absorption of the paint in the process. YK (1960): „I get the mark of the flesh through the impressions taken from the bodies of my models, but the mark of nature’s states/ moments??“ A realisation of the flesh and the body via incorporating into his methodology the tools that relay an imprint – very practical – however he questions the higher less accessible levels of expression of Nature herself leaving, for himself more than anyone, the question somehow unanswered as respect to the existential possibilities not probabilities. In addition it is the anti-conventional methodic that Klein is laying claim to... that bodies and forms painted with a brush hold conventionalities that are no longer true to the form thereby representing a trace of their Absence rather than their existence.. futher celebrating the painting painted by the hand of no painter (Archeiropoietes).. whereby body and image join to form a Pleonasm – the tension of body and ist own image is defined. In his more infamous Negative Anthropometries entitled „Hiroshima“ Klein addresses a little more directly the holocaust re-visualisation comparing the paintings to the highly inspiring images of post-nuclear evidence remaining on the walls of Hiroshima in Japan. The comparison, though stark and perhaps crude, celebrates not the tragedy of war yet rather the immortality and indentification such paintings give to this event. If you will notice the painting below, unlike the renowned Positive Anthropometries, contains more of the body including the Head and more of the legs in the picture. While the other forms celebrate the emotive richness harboured in the torso of the body alone and neglect to include the Head and face thereby avoiding the aesthetic of ‚the portrait’ (and in doing so avoiding a personalisation or humanism of the beings and retaining by default the Reverence of the images and forms), these paintings depict a more documentative visualisation via the negative imprinting method of body outline direct to canvas, plus the overblending or multiplic ation of said forms.

With a less distinct resolution and a more cloudy, undefined outline, these forms adopt a feeling of reminiscence, and in implementing the Negative methodology, result in a more dreamlike, less illustrative, realisation. While considered a highly performative artform Klein nevertheless stayed true in method to the detachment in his methods for the Anthropometries. „Yves Klein crusader passes through the blue of the flame origingal cleanser.“ - poem by Andre Verdet 1962. In 1962 Klein begins his portrait (fire) reliefs – the Peinture de Feu. About his first fire painting production at the Centre de Essain du Gaz de France: „I made the flames lick the surface of the painting in such a way that it recorded the spontaneous traces of the fire. But what it is that provokes in me in this pursuit of the impression of fire? --- Every work of creation, quite apart from it’s cosmic position, is the representation of pure phenomenology – every phenomenon manifests itself of it’s own accord. This manifestation is always distinct in form, and is the essence of the immediate; the trace of the immediate.“

Fire Paintings are an extension of the anthropometric concept with fire being elemental in fictional building material (such as walls in his simultaneous project Air Architecture). In this work fire is claimed as future without fogetting the past ... as sweetness and torture. It is cuisine and apocalypse .. „It is one of the universal principles of explanation.“ To quote close friend and curator Pierre Restany in reference to his first painting at the galerie Colette in Paris (1957): „Klein was impressed by fire, a symbol – among other things – of destruction; regeneration; a purified renewal; a sort of transmutation.“ Again Klein implements both the negative and the positive methods. Models are covered with dilluted Rhodopas (IKB binder), a flammable varnish which is then

imprinted directly onto the canvas. This imprint is the only part that burns, producing upon contact with the flamethrower a positive imprint leaving behind a trace similar again to what was discovered on the walls of the city of Hiroshima in Japan following the 1945 nuclear blast. To assimilate the negative image, the living paintbrush models are merely moistened with water and their outlines sprayed again with the IKB binder, leaving a negative print after spraying with fire as fire does not effect the damp surfaces. The result is the „inverted cosmogony“. Pierre Restany (Aug.’98): „The famous quote ‚My Paintings are the ashes of my art’ meant that (YK perceived) only too well the dual nature of the alchemistic fire at the bottom of the void. He wanted not only to remind us of fire’s light, but of it’s burn.“

This combination of fire and water (labelled „Grand Feu Couleur FC1“/Great Fire Color FC1) enabled Klein to implement what he considered the most important natural elements while involving his own performative physicality in the process would prove for him to symbolise the passage of form and colour to the immaterial. Though seemingly crude this process retained a delicacy in its ingredients and protocol of technique, with different heating temperatures variable via intensity and distance in application, in order to attain the ‚correct’ colour. The performance and theatrical aspect in the meantime becomes a prominent and crucial part of the methodic – where movement and the theatricality of live spectacle, documentation, and production combine the final realisation. Such theatrics would prove a priority over regulations which Klein took very little notice of.. upsetting the Station chief at the Gaz de France much of Klein’s process here was exactly to have the process noticed – to bring the process out of the anonymity of the studio space and into a public space as an integral part of the production process – precipitating a public intervention. The unpredictability in this respect was most likely not only expected but desired – thus creating an ‚event’ and providing the appropriate attention and emotional chemistry within the working space. This was, to Klein, certainly an important element in the birth and creation of new works and enforces his motivations to (metaphorically) „Tear down the temple veil of the studio... (and) To keep nothing of my process hidden.“ In his studio Klein treated the process also with a stringent ritualistic disciplined methodology..likening his models to members of the priesthood thereby retaining a sense of dignity via his own self-written rules. From the studio to the live perofmance floor there would be an intense level of inter-manipulation between the ‚paintbrushes’ while Klein himself would illustrate clearly the high-degree of specification he demanded from his Paintbrushes and the extensive articulation he would insist upon albeit at a distance. In this process it was made clear that a large part of his fascination

was in the torso... the thighs and trunk of the body stating that „Only the body is alive...the head, the arms, the legs are only intellectual articulation around the bulk of flesh that is the body“. He claimed that it was there that the real universe is found.. hidden only by the universe of our limited perception...attestation to a recognition of his own Christianity. Klein worked regularly with the same models, and with one in particular (Elena Palombo-Mosca close friend of wife Rotraud Uecker), was able to establish a certain intimacy nothing to do with passion or human lust.. rather a spritual closeness which was able to be developed between the roles of creator and model - an understanding of remoteness and impression; a chemical unity of paint and paper, and a growing understanding of spiritual nudity and its combination with the surrounding elements. For Palomba-Mosca the colour blue „..came to represent traces of ‚Ki’ the japanese equivalent of ‚Chi’ or energy imprinted as evidence of existence on a constant stream of life.“ The action Klein assumed in-studio with his various models pronounced on the outset sensuality and indeed sexuality, particularly the one pose of the model straddling the cylinder in order to attain the imprint of the body’s undercarriage. Other variants are bodies poised in frontal and prolific positions, upright, seated and crouching postures and in all cases the images are not complete forms but forms emerging from empty space – spaces of nothingness and the surrounding void accentuated their existence, whereby the body is placed more as a site of energy and life that is not fixed in time, nor place nor characterisation. The representations depict women along an open spectrum of native emotions – seductive, aggressive, primordial, playful, ghostly, maternal, formless-ness... following a return to the fundamental ethos of „using the body itself as the agent and signifier of the vital force that is the essence and existence of being...“

Certainly an assumation and post-productive analysis can give way to certain recuperative idealisms, hence open the doors to a mainstream acceptability and understanding of Yves Klein’s work that can indeed receive a universal unity in understanding, though the physiology behind this most (essentially) basic of methodologies of the imprinted anthropometries may deceive in their very aesthetic form and proportion. What cannot be denied is the harmony of process Klein’s life appreciated with a certain togetherness of collaborative work with a lubricated career of esteem and ambition supported by a personal life experiential path that has managed to delve into and experiment with numerous extreme human and spiritual ingredients. Having studied under Max Heindel, Klein’s inspirations for the textural elements of the IKB Blue palette would prove to involve Heindel’s Rosicrusian doctrine or ‚cosmoconception’.. focussing largely on the macro-cosmic elements of the sun-soaked saltwater-saturated form of the beached body form, while paralleling the absorptive property of the sponge and the concept of immersion, impregnation and submersion within „spiritual ether“. The microscopic pores of the body, the fluids that are excreted such as dust and saliva, phlegm and tears were considered by Klein as elements part of,

yet separate from, the body. This macro-study would become analogous to Klein’s new vision of nature...“recreating the illusion of the body’s boundaries threatening the distinct self with it’s dissolution and death.“ By deconstructing to a genetic level a particled existence of the human form Klein felt able to consolidate his own definition on the mortality of the physical form therefore identifying a connection to levels of more ethereal definitions of existence. YK: "Transformed into a fetish, they hang deathly inert, corpse-like in their material stillness, and begin to shed their animate, sacred part before emerging with the void of Space."

Klein envisaged this macro world in the form of a film beginning with the abovementioned body on the beach scene and implementing his microscopic vision as the topographical terrain or backdrop for his founding methodology. With the IKB Blue coming to represent to Klein the ultimate ‚truisms’ of man’s essence – or, more precisely, the blue blood of sensibility. In his script the woman’s skin is wiped with a handkerchief by a ‚promeneur’ who then notices the image imprinted with sweat and sand directly onto the cloth. Though an incidental discovery in the film’s storyline this proves to be a key and rather deliberate adaptation of Heindel’s Cosmogenics, and a profound scientific interpretation for an underlying philosophy in his work. Via seemingly voyeuristic motivation on the outset, Klein introduces through this development a strong religious referential thematic into his works’ philosophical structure. The anthropometries themselves are first and foremost the epitomal realisation of Klein’s desired self-image as conductor in the sense of leader of the orchestra. By using varying thicknesses of canvas / tissue / cloth, his direct prints from body with colour, though produced most consciously and with stringent deliberation, differ only from the facia l image of Christ in it’s very pre-meditative method. Parallels of the Anthropometric works of Klein’s to the holy shroud of Jesu Christi do exist whereby the implication stands that the death of Christ is emulated in the direct physical impressionability and forever repeated in the eternal death of man towards human recyclability. Such analogies are repeated again in the original film script implying the element of absorption and saturation of the body by earthly elements and materials.. desto the saturation of the viewer and the public sphere by the IKB colour paintings, combining the ethereal and the immaterial belief in the Void, thus challenging the topic of Death of the self in the everyday sense in order to attain Rebirth. In this manner Klein plays a dangerous game; a game of resurrection after the Christian doctrine whereby reaching into nothingness

has indeed proved to provide an element of the unreachable – the existence of his work as suspended in nothingness and is therefore recognised as, perhaps, an authentic conception of his Life practice and beliefs. Once again, his own work reflects in and to himself emotions of solitude – a loss of self via a freightening new awareness. To quote Klein at his exposition in Paris in 1958: „...„The immaterial blue ... in short made me inhuman, had excluded me from the world of tangible reality; Jean Tinguely saw me in space and signalled to me in speed to show me the last machine to take to return to the ephemerality of material life.“ „...He was a conquistador of the void,“ say Restany, „..not of nothingness but of the active emptiness found in the oriental tradition --- Klein undertook a manipulation of the immaterial, the design of the rituals through which it is appropriated, a translation of the mental into the physical.“

Klein’s earlier stringent martial arts practices provided him with an inherent understanding of the pictorial sense and its connectivity to being a product of spiritual exercise.. it was for him the discovery of a spritiual space. By interpreting the physica l action and intervention of Judo in his work he directly relates the confidence of physicality by balanc ing it with the less stable spiritual connection of the unknown... it is said his experience with Judo was the source of the “sensibility” that was central to his work. In reference to his performative work Klein analogises the method to the martia l arts: „Hours of preparation for something that is executed, with extreme precision, in a few minutes. Just as with a Judo throw.“ On a less self-focussed perspective it can be said that Klein handled his ‚living paintbrushes’ in a simlarly firm and disciplined manner weaving their imprints onto the canvas while orchestrating their movements and actions as a samurai would handle his sword. A conformity of practice? Or a voyeuristic agressivity? Certainly unconventiona l was his method though this proved to be balanc ed in a way via a more latent and docile underbelly of physiology in the form of the Yogic methods of breathing called „pranayama“. The technique, stemming from India, calms the mind and focuses all energies of the body towards the very art of the breath.. and for Klein this would have a logical and inevitable translation to movements and imprints manifested on the canvas in combination with cosmic energy. Asides from his assimilation of the direct image onto cloth and this founding innovation as inspiration in much of his work, there is little that enforces a further-developed

religious implication in the work Klein produced during the short career of his short life. He presented largely what was a manifestation of inner and outer energies and innovated earthly elements as largely and literally as possible into his works from developmental to realisation phases.. There is however a strong element of the philosophy of re-creation. With the Anthropometrics, the paintings can be seen as a rather destructive process at work. A barrage of life-size portraiture and representations with religously-related methodologies though in practice proving largely to be the celebration and, further, the deconstruction of motifs directly connected to historical images of mass desatruction – a double negative in a way, allowing a process thereafter of re-birth and the re-affirmation of creation. With the ritualistic live Anthroperformances as with the studio delicac ies, the processes continually imply repitition towards infinity – a massive support for the cleansing of the self via a physica l resolution, allowing the surrounding Zones of Sensiblity and particles if immateriality to assume the true pallette of his work – while retaining for himself the role of conductor in a rather riské game of ‚hyper-creativity’.. a destruction of earthly forms, particularly with the fire painting, in search of affirmation of recreation. Though having played with ideas and pratices earlier in his career dealing with Alchemy, this is believed to be a distant influence and not a direct structural connection to his practic ing aesthetic. Much of his work is shrouded in voyeuristic and highly aesthetic veils of presentation and form, though it is ultimately playing a chaotic psychological game of deconstruction of forms and issues – both on a philosophical and spiritual level – towards disintegration ‚into the void’ of nothingness... with the main precipitated idea to be the goal of rebirth of the form... and of the Self. For his first personal show in 1957 at the gallery Colette Allendy in Paris, he introduced sculptures, an environment, pure pigment, a screen, a fire painting, and the first immaterial (a totally empty room).. And simultaneously across town at the Galerie Iris Clert he begins his „pneumatic period“ with the opening of the exhibition of Blue Monochromes – releasing 1001 balloons (blue) into the sky...Klein’s duality of directions, and this action’s philosophical significance is clearly demonstrated with this colliding of events at this time.. this event, 3 years prior to the launch of the Anthropometric image, would effectively be an environmental preparation of Klein’s forthcoming role of passive direction within his own process. Of the influence on Klein of the Zen philosophy, Pierre Restany claims: „Once the elisciple has reached the point of total concentration meditation frees him of total concentration, meditation freed him of his ego... thus making him as free as space... antispace is a condemnation of freedom.... For Klein ..material if immaterial“.

To quote contemporary visual and moving picture artist Doug Aitken (Jan12-14 2004 CA): „When I think about Klein’s work, it is really about traces and a sense of lightness, the impression of something left behind that disappears as quickly as it was there.“ „Klein’s work has nothing to do with the physical aesthetic of it. It is more what is missing rather than what is there; it is more in this absence in space or in the leaving transitory quality of proposals or objects.“ „Form of invisible architecture..much like film...the great contribution of Klein’s work is the act of disappearance.“

To go a little deeper into the hailed philosophical methodolgy of the Immaterial, Klein implemented the apparent intricate background into what ultimately was a premeditated wish to comply and supply his dedicated art practices to the undefined force (to date) of the immaterial world that binds and combines all earthly elements. YK: „I remain detached and distant, but it is under my eyes and my orders that the work of art must create itself. Then, when the creation starts, I stand there... ready to welcome the work of art that is coming into existence in the tangible world.“

According to contemporary curators::.. „it is the concept of the immaterial (that) has always been present in art ... it is one of it’s permanent peculiarities“ (Fabio Cavaluc ci). Examples of this include the gold background in medievil paintings which allude to infinity; likewise with Rembrandt’s vacuous facial expressions in his later self-portraits. ***++„The excess of immaterial products not only causes reality to vanish, as Baudrillard points out, but it devalues the immaterial itself.“ „...(this century) the notion of impalpability is associated with more coherence to an attempt to shun simulation“ a la .. the invisble, the intangible, the immaterial entered art as protagonist with DuChamp’s bottling of Paris AIR...“ Thematically linked Forms.. „Anthropometries“, „Fire Paintings“ and „Cosmogonies“... represent the physical result of the collaboration of the artist with natural or human participation; Klein produced the situation and even directed it revelling in it’s theatrical possiblities with the work itself carrying the direct imprint of the physical body of his collaborator. In december 1959 Prompted by new wife Rotraut Uecker Klein publishes a brochure in Belgium titled „le dépassement de la problematique de l’art“ (the overcoming of Art Problematique) integrating a school of practice of imagination and matter (-> an updated version of the Bauhaus).

As with Manzoni in "Egg with Thumbprint" (1960), so too does Klein use the direct imprint of the human body as a signature of creative identity... a signature in this way tends towards an almost ironic symmetry in logic at a time where the very psychological force behind the works are driven by the extreme dematerialisation of art..such signatures are therefore considered an equally radical strategy of direct physical involvement while effecting the very disappearance of the artist and his direct role in the process.

With handwritten signatures in the case of both these artists proving at this time to be a fashionable and explicit theme attached to art production while reflecting a general artistic attitude, questions of authentic ity are raised, as is the relationship between physical production and conceptual content. With Klein's cheques entitling the bearer to "participate in an immaterial artistic sensibility", he redefines the artwork as a pseudo legal act rather than an object - an extreme grasp at legitimising the artforms that ARE the basis of the DE-materialisation of said forms...this juxtaposition takes the disappearance of the artist in the process to another level of conceptualisation and into the realm of commercial significance while inverting the very act of monetary involvement desto as a part of the artistic practice and product. _________________________________ Bibliography:: Source: Tucia Electa p.12 Reference: Air Architecture Source: Yves Klein J-P Leduer Source: Yves Klein Yves Klein (The Tate) Reference: Tuscia Electa pp.12-13 Source: Marie Raymond p-170 Source: Yves Klein – Sidra Stich Source: Yves Klein - Nuit Banui Reference: Gualtiero Jacopetti’s film Mondo Cane. TIMELINE::: 1958 galerie Iris Clert white painted empty gallery room guarded by Garde Republicaine uniformed men. In 1959, June 3 Sorbonne.. Klein lectures in Paris in „The Evolution of Art Towards the Immaterial“ 1960 exchanging certificates of „Zone of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility“, for Gols with the only true composition of ceritification confirmed upon the loss or destruction of said certificates and half the gold payments. Feb 17, 1960 Paris production of Anthropometry & model paintings. March 9, 1960 Paris – „Anthropometry of the performance)

Blue

Period

and

Monotone

Symphony“ (avec

Jan & Feb 1961 „Monochrome & Feuer“ – five columns & firewall installation in graden museum (deutschland)

May 1961 The creation of the first fire paintings ... soon after incorporating the print of women’s bodies and IKB and monopink pigments into these techniques. July 18-19, 1961 Fire Paintings and Anthropometries production @ GAZ de France, Saint Denis 1961 Concept: Cité Climatisée / Air Conditioned City (Air Roof & Fire Walls) collaboration with Claude Parent. _________________________________ extra material ---YK/Restany on basis of monochromy: „Why not 2 colors? Well, because I refuse to provide a show through my painting. I refuse to compare and contrast, to enhance the strength of such or such element as opposed to other, weaker ones...as soon as 2 colours are in a painting a struggle commences (on psychological and emotiona l levels).“