Yves Klein was born in Nice in 1928 to a family of artists. The future artist never studied painting, was interested in the secret society of Rosicrucians, and was a professional judoist. Yves Klein received a black belt in Japan, but was unable to continue his career in the French Judo Federation because France did not recognize the belt as valid, so Yves went to Spain and continued practicing martial arts there. Judo will occupy an important place in Yves Klein’s life almost all his life, and Yves will also publish a book about it after returning from Spain.

Throughout his life, Yves Klein was involved in various directions, which in the middle of the last century were his personal discovery, and now continue to be of great interest for study. This article is about the blue color, fire painting and airy architecture of Yves Klein.

Blue by Yves Klein — International Klein Blue (IKB)

Blue will become the central theme of Yves Klein’s works in the mid-50s, but since the 40s the master will create monochromes of different colors. Monochromy from the Greek μονόχρωμος — one-color. Yves Peintures, works of red, gray, green, yellow and other colors, will be first published in 1954 in Spain. Yves Peintures are 10 multi-colored rectangles and a preface to them in the form of empty black lines.

It is noteworthy that in the USA, namely in New York, in the 50s abstract expressionism will already flourish, a direction separate from realism. This painting has nothing in common with the image of any elements of the surrounding world. Artists working in abstract expressionism will focus on what is inside themselves. A few decades later, abstractions will become some of the most expensive paintings in the history of art, and Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline will become icons of abstract expressionism. The last artist to return black to its glory will go through the entire 20th century and end up in the Louvre; he will be Pierre Soulages, who passed away on October 25, 2022, at the age of 102.

In 1955, Yves Klein will have his first solo exhibition in Paris. In 1957, the artist will hold an exhibition in Milan, where 11 blue monochromes and one red one will be presented. Since then, blue and Yves Klein will be inseparable. The artist was not satisfied with just blue: he needed a unique blue. In 1960, Yves Klein, together with the Parisian paint manufacturer Edouard Adam, realized his idea and patented the technology for producing pigment. The color is called IKB (International Klein Blue).

Blue according to Klein is spirituality and space. Once in his youth, Yves Klein saw a blue sky and then he said that it was his best work. But birds flew across the sky, angering Yves, because they ruined his canvas: Yves probably saw blue as the deepest natural color. But in addition to nature, Klein was also inspired by the blue color in the frescoes of Giotto (1267-1337) in Italy. Yves in no way denied the art of previous centuries and did not renounce it, which cannot be said about many figures of the 20th century, carried away by futurism and a complete break with everything that was before the era of machines, such as F. T. Marinetti, who created the manifesto of futurism in Italy in 1909. It is also noteworthy that in this painting some of the main colors are blue, gold and pink. According to Yves Klein, these three colors represent spirituality, and all of them will be in the Yves Klein trilogy, which is presented at the very beginning of the article.

Fire and Painting. 1961

A year before his death, Yves Klein began working with fire: the artist created fire sculptures, as well as canvases that appeared due to the interaction of the material and the flame brought to it. At the closing of his exhibition in Germany, Yves Klein first showed a wall of 50 small burners and a fire sculpture. Later, Klein will work with large sizes: the flow of fire will be directed onto large surfaces, which became possible thanks to the help of the French gas company.

Air architecture

Air architecture is a project that is a combination of Yves Klein’s way of thinking and the architectural skills of the French architect Claude Parent (1923-2016).

After Yves Klein’s death, Claude Parent gave a huge interview, which can be read in the book Yves Klein Claude Parent. You can get a translation of the book and Yves Klein’s lecture on the principles of aerial architecture in the spring, it will be available to the donors of our project.

Yves Klein and Claude Parent met in the spring of 1959, three years before Yves’s death. The meeting was unique, because Klein lacked an architect close in spirit to realize his immaterial architectural ideas. Klein was very interested in finding a way to integrate the elements: air and fire – into architecture. At the Sorbonne in June 1959, Klein explained the principles of aerial architecture.

With the help of Claude Parent, Yves Klein was also able to refine his fire fountains. The combination of water and fire is a clash of two fundamental opposites. Yves conceived geysers from which fire burst forth instead of water, flames on the surface of the water, a waterfall with a horizontal wall of fire, and more. In 1961, the sketches were presented in cities in France, Italy, and Germany. The essence of the project was to disguise the technological side of architecture, and people would see as much nature as possible in their environment.

Klein and Parent sought to illustrate their idea with the help of drawings, and Yves Klein put the following into the idea: “the world will be so spiritually transformed that it will lead to absolute happiness.” Claude Parent, being a continuer of geometric abstraction and a member of the Escape Group, created realistic sketches, which were called “immaterial artistic sensibility.”

The project, which was supposed to unite nature and architecture, was called Blue Revolution, but it was never realized: in 1962, to his great sorrow, Yves Klein’s heart stopped beating. He was 34 years old.