Document, 1957, ca.

Yves Klein, Note on the Tactile Sculptures

Tactile sculptures

These were not exhibited. I don’t really know why any more. These were boxes, each pierced with two holes fitted with sleeves. The idea was to be able to put one’s hands inside the box up to one’s elbows and to touch and examine the sculpture in the interior of the box without being able to see it. I now believe that I declined to exhibit these boxes because I very quickly had attained such an extreme perfection in these tactile sculptures that I believed it wise to hold them back for a little while. This extreme perfection was quite simply to have installed living sculptures in these boxes, living sculptures such as beautiful and evidently shapely nude models. At the time, this was a bit premature; the police would have been on my back right away. Today, on the other hand, it is not to say that I may not present these hyper-sensitive sculptures to the public very soon.
Technical Tapuscrit et stylo bille sur papier