This stay in Japan laid the foundations of a future philosophy applied to art, or more precisely to the surpassing of art.

In kodokan judo, one of the branches of judo, Yves Klein found not just a sport, but a way of life and an ethical system based on Zen Buddhism. It is necessary to go beyond the body, in particular through the kiai, a technique in which the judoka concentrates his spiritual energy so intensely that he suddenly releases it through a cry arising from the depths of his being.

In a later manuscript, he wrote that judo and painting likewise allow the sudden release of a breath that mobilises the whole being, which becomes a simple receptacle for the work of the spirit.

He had also learned this lesson from the traditional art of calligraphy, which, beyond the gesture, is based on the idea of contact, or more precisely of imprint.

His future conceptualisation of the immaterial, and then of "going beyond the problematics of art", found some of its foundations there.


Damien Sausset, extract from the special issue of Connaissance des arts "Yves Klein Intime", 2022