Lot 617 D

A spectacular exhibition called “Proposte monocrome, epoca blu” held in January 1957 in the Milan Galleria Apollinaire was the initial spark for the unparalleled artistic career of Yves Klein. Here he first displays a group of eleven monochrome picture panels - an extraordinary provocation for this time. They are in the deep, luminous ultramarine blue that will become his ultimate identification mark. With the monochromatic, seemingly totally homogenous pictures, Klein wishes to arouse extreme reactions from the public, and alongside many negative critiques, experienced unusual success. He suddenly became famous in the Italian and French avant-garde, and artists such as Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni felt verified and inspired in their own artistic opinion. Shortly afterwards, in an exhibition in the Parisian Galerie Iris Clert in May 1957, Klein used a sponge for the first time, soaked in ultramarine blue paint and displayed as a sponge sculpture - the second iconic element of his oeuvre is born.
Yves Klein is concerned with overcoming all echoes of representation, composition and personal handwriting in his art and creating “atmospheres” with his paintings and objects. They should seduce the viewer into an intense introspection and thus open up access to completely new sensations and gains in knowledge. No title, no obvious differences apart from the subtle manual traces of the creative process provide orientation; Klein's envisaged sensitivity of the viewer is brought about by the pure, subjective colour experience.
With regards to the Milan exhibition, Klein himself said: “But the blue world of each picture, although of the same blue and presented in the same way as the others, was of a completely different essence and atmosphere. None resembled the other - no more than painterly or poetic moments resembling each other - although they all had the same sublime and subtle nature (of the immaterial). The most sensational observation could be seen with the “buyers”. They all chose one of the eleven pictures in their own way and all paid the required price. The prices were naturally all different. On the one hand this shows that the painterly quality of such a painting involves something other than the material and physical appearance, on the other one can see that the buyers understood that state which I call “painterly sensibility”. (Yves Klein, in: Sidra Stich, Yves Klein, exhib.cat. Museum Ludwig, Cologne e.a., Stuttgart 1994, p.86)