NO SHOW MUSEUM

Symphonie Monoton Silence (Monoton Silence Symphony), 1949.

GF | A

Orchestral work for twenty voices and 32 instruments. The piece consists of one note: a single, twenty-minute sustained chord, followed by at least 20 minutes of "absolute" silence. Written in 1949, it was first performed in 1960 at the Galerie International d'Art Contemporain in Paris, with Klein himself in white tie as conductor, with ten musicians participating.

(Historical Sound Record / Footage)

Surfaces et blocs de sensibilité picturale – Intentions picturales (Surfaces and Blocks of Pictorial Sensibility – Pictorial Intentions), 1957.

1st | A

Yves Klein presented his first immaterial works at Galerie Colette Allendy in Paris. They mark the beginning of a development that the artist himself referred to as his "pneumatic period."

Tentative des Vides dans le tableau 
figuratif de 1955 [monochrome en 49]. 
Ça ne vaut rien! (Attempt at Nothingnesses in Figurative Painting in 1955 [monochrome in 49]. It Is Worth Nothing!), 1957.

GF | B

Architecture de l'air (Air architecture), 1957-1962.

​1st | B

In collaboration with the architect Werner Ruhnau, Yves Klein developed a utopian project of immaterial architecture, with building materials from elemental forces such as air, fire, and water. An air roof should span the city of the future and should provide protection from the sun and rain. Transparent walls, roofs, and even furniture should be made from compressed air, while facilities such as kitchens, bathrooms, and storage rooms should be located in basements. With this vision, Yves Klein wanted to free the world from material objects. In many essays and experiments, Klein conducted ambitious studies on how air and other natural forces can be used as revolutionary new building materials.

La spécialisation de la sensibilité à l’état matière première en sensibilité picturale
 stabilisée (The Specialization of Sensibility in the Raw Material State of Stabilized Pictorial Sensibility), 1958.

1st | A

This work later became known as La Vide (The Void) and took place in 1958 in Galerie Iris Clert in Paris. Thanks to an enormous publicity campaign, including thousands of invitation postcards (mailed with monochrome blue stamps), the exhibition was a spectacular success, with more than 3000 guests having attended the opening. There was nothing to see, except for an empty showcase, as the gallery had been completely emptied and the walls had been painted white to erase all traces of previous exhibitions. Klein wanted to "create an ambience, a genuine pictorial climate, and, therefore, an invisible one." Yves Klein hoped that the dematerialization of the painting would have an even stronger effect than a physical painting could ever have. Even though the show became famous as the first exhibition of the void in history, the subject of the exhibition was not emptiness or nothingness as such. Rather, Klein attempted to free painting from being bound to a (visible) materiality. With this exhibition he wanted to "show" that the presence of physical paintings is not necessary in order to affect the viewer – the "aura" of the artist is sufficient to achieve that. Prior to the exhibition, the expectations of the audience were focused in another direction. The stamp on the invitation card was blue; the exterior window of the gallery had been painted blue; there was a blue sofa in the entrance lobby, where complimentary blue cocktails were on hand to welcome visitors; and the enormous theater curtain separating the empty exhibition space from the lobby was also blue. Therefore, visitors were first impregnated with an extra layer of International Klein Blue before they were allowed to enter the void. Once there, the sensibilized visitors should not have encountered anything, but rather experience pure immaterialized Blue. Klein himself wrote an amusing diary account of the opening night.

Zones de sensibilité picturale immatérielle (Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility), 1959.

1st | A

In the summer of 1959, Yves Klein expanded his interest in the void to the sale of the immaterial: He sold "zones of immaterial pictorial sensibility" in exchange for 20, 40 , 60 , 80, or 160 grams of fine gold. The buyer got a receipt that certified him the property of the respective zone of immaterial pictorial sensibility. But only if the buyer burned the certificate, did he come into full possession of the pictorial sensibility. In return, the artist had to throw half of the obtained gold bars into a river in front of witnesses. Between 1959 and 1962, Yves Klein sold eight zones, and the ritual was performed at least three times.

In the same year, Yves Klein participated in the group exhibition Vision in Motion - Motion in Vision in Hessenhuis in Antwerp by declaring the place that had been reserved for his piece a work of art as such, and thus leaving it empty. He quoted Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space from 1957: "First there is nothing, then there is a deep nothing, then there is a blue depth." 

Dimanche – Le Journal d'un Seul Jour (Sunday – The Newspaper for Only One Day), 1960.

1st | A

The four-page newspaper was published on Sunday, November 27, 1960, and sold that day at various news stands in Paris. It contained texts and statements by Yves Klein about art and the void, including the "Theater of the Void." On the front page, the photomontage Leap into the Void was published for the first time, and for which Klein became famous. (Historical Footage)

The Void Room, 1961.  1st | A

The exhibition at the Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld, Germany in 1961 was the only retrospective of Yves Klein's work during his lifetime. As the centerpiece of the exhibition, Yves Klein presented an empty space he had painted white.

Salon Comparaisons, 1962. Group exhibition.

1st | A

Only a few months before his death in 1962, Yves Klein was invited to participate in the "Salon Comparaisons" at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. As his artistic contribution to the exhibition, he removed all the paintings from the walls of one of the museum's rooms, and left it empty.

Links

Yveskleinarchives.org | Galerie Gmurzynska | Gagosian Gallery | Further informations 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Credits

All reproductions © 2014, ProLitteris, Zurich