Exhibition, 20 Mar 1974 - 15 May 1974

Yves Klein, 1928-1962 : Selected writings

Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom, London, England

A little more than a decade after the death of the French artist Yves Klein, the Tate Gallery hosted the first British retrospective of his work. Originally designed for an exhibition of three people, including Piero Manzoni and Joseph Beuys, the exhibition was condensed.

This exhibition was organized by Caumont, who was able to count on the loans of Yves Klein's widow, the artist Routraut Klein-Moquay, who also provided information and documents that accompanied the works. Aware of Klein's influence on other artists, and his renown within the New Realism, Caumont seeks to present the extent of Klein's practice from his relatively short career.
Caumont's exhibition, while quite conventional in choosing to represent the artist's work mainly through his objets d'art, deviates from the norm by the presence of a wealth of documents, which Caumont includes to expose the artist's "activities" and the processes by which he worked.
The purpose of Caumont and Compton was to display the documents and works of art separately, but within the overall framework of the exhibition, to create a complete portrait of Klein's life, demonstrating the links between all his activities. Caumont and Compton considered Klein's process as important as its products, placing performance not only as a means but also as a means of production.

Curators: Caumont and Compton