I PUBLICLY CLAIM YVES KLEIN TO BE MY KEPT ARTIST UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

A Moment of Silence…. as a tribute to this occurrence. It is exciting, for me… I have never had an artist. Not on retainer, not in any way.

So let’s first have a tribute to the man!

Okay are you back???

It can’t be derivative if it’s never been done before. It’s also not your place to tell someone not to claim immaterial art. It’s not that complex, but no one has ever claimed him as I just have, in a binding way less than frivolous or fleeting. But here’s the secret… I will share him with you. Let’s not be greedy, folks! First…. I want to share a brilliant article about the below picture… Yves Klein’s Leap Year.

Leap into the Void

Let’s learn more, shall we?

His archives. Quite a good place to start, methinks.  Here is a German site that is a somewhat interesting way to explore some of his work.

Air Architecture & Life Without Objects .. a passed exhibit that boggles my mind, a bit.

LIVING SCULPTURE if you are a bit more tactile. =)

You might want to consider the MONOTONE SYMPHONY – thanks to Archive.org you can listen to it or download it!  Here’s a little bit about it, from the Archive page.

The Monotone Symphony March 9, 1960

On a clear night in March at ten pm sharp a crowd of one hundred people, all dressed in black tie attire, came to the Galerie International d’Art Contemporain in Paris. The event was the first conceptual piece to be shown at this gallery by their new artist Mr. Yves Klein. The gallery was one of the finest in Paris.

Mr. Klein in a black dinner jacket proceeded to conduct a ten piece orchestra in his personal composition of The Monotone Symphony, which he had written in 1949. This symphony consisted of one note.

Three models appeared, all with very beautiful naked bodies. They were then conducted as was the full orchestra by Mr. Klein. The music began. The models then rolled themselves in the blue paint that had been placed on giant pieces of artist paper – the paper had been carefully placed on one side of the galleries’ wall and floor area – opposite the full orchestra. Everything was composed so breathtakingly beautifully. The spectacle was surely a metaphysical and spiritual event for all. This went on for twenty minutes. When the symphony stopped it was followed by a strict twenty minutes of silence, in which everyone in the room willingly froze themselves in their own private meditation space.

At the end of Yves’ piece everyone in the audience was fully aware they had been in the presence of a genius at work, the piece was a huge success! Mr. Klein triumphed. It would be his greatest moment in art history, a total success.

The spectacle had unquestionable poetic beauty, and Mr. Kleins’ last words that night were, “THE MYTH IS IN ART”.

I highly encourage the Hirshorn Exhibit in Washington DC.  When I was there, a small boy placed his hand in the International Klein Blue pigmentation surrounding part of the exhibit…. he immediately became part of the exhibit; blue on his hands and face and clothes and the wall and floor!  The security guards were going mad, scolding the father… never the child (I assume that is a policy?).

But there Klein stood – alive in 2010 – in his tuxedo and white gloves, nervously smiling, off to the side, as his young living brush did all the work.  He would have been overjoyed.  I wonder to what extent he meant for that interaction to happen? Could he have even assumed guards would be present?  It certainly sparked a new take on the exhibit – while in process of viewing it.  It’s also interesting, as well as the conversation about the interaction of viewer with the art they are viewing.

Of course, it seems I am currently having that conversation with myself.  The concept of saying he is mine is because he claimed all the interactions of people in the city as his art.  I can’t remember it, exactly. Help is always appreciated.