Exhibition, 5 Oct 2006 - 5 Feb 2007

Yves Klein Corps, couleur, immatériel

Centre Georges Pompidou - Musée national d'art moderne, Paris, France

Bringing together one hundred and twenty paintings and sculptures, about forty drawings and manuscripts of the artist and a large number of films and photographs of time, this exhibition offers a rereading of the work of Yves Klein. As faithful as possible to the artist's statements contained in the recently published writings, the scenography highlights the importance that Yves Klein attributed to the multiple aspects of his artistic activity: paintings, sculptures, but also performances, sound works, interventions in public spaces, architectural projects ...

By reconstituting works such as the "Aerostatic Sculpture", 1957 (release of 1001 balloons) or the "Illumination of the Obelisk", 1958, the Place de la Concorde, this event puts on the same level as the monochromes the ephemeral actions of the artist. Yves Klein's work is based on a dynamic balance between two poles: the visible and the invisible, matter and emptiness, the flesh and the immaterial. This tension is at the heart of his work: while exploring non-materiality to the point of exposing Le Vide (Galerie Iris Clert, Paris 1958), Yves Klein will continue to create visible works.

The exhibition's itinerary revolves around Yves Klein's three emblematic colors: blue, gold and pink, cited in this order in his writings, or collected in a few rare triptychs. From 1959 it is from these colors that the work of Klein is built. The "Ex-voto" dedicated to St. Rita, 1961, deposited by the artist at the Monastery of St. Rita in Cascia (Italy), an unpublished work presented in the exhibition, is a valuable testimony of the symbolic value that gold and pink represent the same as blue in the universe of his creation.

The subtitle of the exhibition "BODY, COLOR, IMMATERIAL" focuses on the aspects of Yves Klein's work that reveal it eminently contemporary, close to the eyes of artists today: the physical and daily involvement of the artist in his work, his desire to extend the role of the artist through color to a transformation (technical, urban and philosophical) of the world, its use of ephemeral and natural materials, as well as his exploration immaterial


Curators : Mnam/Cci, Camille Morineau