Classic Artist of the Week #9 - Yves Klein

On this site, we like people who think differently. Those who have the bravery to do something the "wrong" way only to find that there exist no right or wrong ways anyway. And Yves Klein was in his craft so innovative that he founded minimal art, laid grounds for pop-art and, began performance art started the whole conceptual movement.





Just like the last week's artist Klein was born into an artistic family. Then he became a master of judo in Japan. After that, he painted a series of paintings in monochrome - full canvases of orange, red and so forth. The public kind of liked it - but then Klein suddenly realized that they do not understand them. That's why he began working in only one colour - blue. Not any blue - his own one. It is still known as "Klein blue" and in that colour he later began the famous performances in which he used women as brushes. Yep. Also, Klein pioneered photo montages as a form of art (they were known before, but only as a form of entertainment).

Klein's works both parodies art and ponders about the meaning of it. It does not matter what the piece depicts (like in realism) or means (like in symbolism). It matters how it affects and how it came to happen(which is the major concept of conceptualism). They explore the unknown, the "never-been-done-what-does-it-mean" part. Some of it is clearly made to make you wonder what the meaning is without having any real meaning, like the exhibition where the door was the only exhibited item. Because we got past asking questions to know the answer. Now humanity should ask questions to explore the process of asking.