Document, 1958, ca.

Letter from Yves Klein to the President of the International Confederation of Atomic Explosions

President of the International Conference for the Detection of Nuclear Explosions

Honorable President, Distinguished Delegates,

I take upon myself in complete humility, but also in full conscience of an artist, to present a proposition to the board of directors of your Conference with regard to atomic and thermonuclear explosions. This proposition is quite simple: to paint A and H bombs blue in such a manner that their eventual explosions should not be recognized by only those who have vested interests in concealing their existence or (which amounts to the same thing) revealing it for purely political purposes, but by all who have the greatest interest in being the first to be informed of this type of disturbance, which I deem to say is all of my contemporaries. All I need is the position and the number of A-bombs and H-bombs and a remuneration, to be discussed, that ought, in any case, to cover:
– The price of colorants
– My own artistic contribution (I will responsible for the coloring – in blue – of all future nuclear explosions).

It is quite clear that we shall exclude cobalt blue as being notoriously radioactive and that we shall use only Klein Blue which has earned me the celebrity of which you are undoubtedly aware.

Although I am fully occupied with my current work, notably with creating the ambiance of the great Gelsenkirchen Opera House, the humanitarian aspect of my proposal seems to me to have priority over any other considerations. Do not think, however, that I am among those who place art after matter. Quite to the contrary, its disintegration allows for the most spectacular monochrome realizations that humanity, and I dare say, the cosmos itself will have known.

In this double effect, I remain, distinguished sirs, your very devoted,

K.

P.S. It is clear that not only the explosion but also the fall-outs ought to be inalterably tinted in blue by my IKB procedure.

cc: His Holiness the Dalai Lama; His Holiness the Pope Pius XII; President of the League of the Rights of Man; Director of the international Committee of Peace; Secretary General of the United Nations; Secretary General of UNESCO; President of the International Federation of Judo; Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Science Monitor; Bertrand Russell; Dr. Albert Schweitzer.
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