It was in 1954 that Yves Klein (Nice, 1928 – Paris, 1962) decided to devote himself entirely to art, having previously aspired only to become a professional judo practitioner. His focus turned completely to the monochrome, or the liberation of color from the prison of line, thus allowing the Absolute to finally become visible. The famous Klein Blue, patented under the name IKB (International Klein Blue), was the vehicle through which this quest for immateriality became possible.

Over the course of his artistic trajectory, Klein broke down the boundaries between conceptual art, sculpture, painting, and performance, striving toward the expression of a vital force conveyed not only through the use of blue, but also reflected in his Anthropometries and his use of gold as a portal to the absolute.

Coming from a family where both parents were painters, Klein was self-taught. Between 1948 and 1954, he traveled through Italy, England and Ireland, Spain, and finally Japan.

His monochrome works, initially in various colors, were first exhibited in 1955 in Paris at the Club des Solitaires, and then again at the Colette Allendy Gallery the following year. Two years later, IKB was ready, and from then on it became the artist’s absolute and distinctive signature through to 1959.

The presentation of his monochrome works in Milan, Paris, Düsseldorf, and London gave Yves le Monochromeinternational visibility. Klein’s first artistic action also took place during this period: in 1957, on the occasion of the opening of his solo show Yves Klein: Propositions monochromes at the Iris Clert Gallery, 1,001 blue balloons were released in Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Klein was an artist committed to going beyond the most common definitions of art: he exhibited empty spaces and transformed his own declarations into works of artistic value. He engaged with public urban spaces, such as lighting the obelisk at Place de la Concorde, and worked with media, printing a one-day newspaper titled Sunday, November 27th. Moreover, his Cosmogonies and Anthropometries—with models used as “living brushes”—further demonstrated his ongoing exploration of alternative modes through which art could express itself. The Cosmogonies resulted from the interaction between pigments and atmospheric elements on canvas, with the aim of capturing direct traces of these natural forces. The Anthropometries, perhaps even more well known, were bodily imprints made by dipping models in paint and pressing them onto the canvas, creating what Klein described as a “trace of life.”

The 1960s also opened with new works and achievements. In 1960, Klein was one of the signatories of the Nouveaux Réalistes manifesto and simultaneously became a radical role model for the Zero Group, which had formed a few years earlier in Düsseldorf. The group aimed to go beyond the subjectivism of Art Informel and the conventionalism of museum traditions. That same year, he exhibited at Galerie Rive Droite in Paris and at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, and the following year at the Dawn Gallery in Los Angeles. Also in 1961, the Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld held the first institutional retrospective dedicated to him. Around the same time, he began experimenting with Fire Paintings.

Klein visited the Centre d’Essais du Gaz de France in Plaine-Saint-Denis, where he created the Fire Paintings using a flamethrower—spiritual works that made the presence of absence visible.

He died suddenly at the age of thirty-four from a heart attack.