Exhibition, 1 Oct 2022 - 5 Mar 2023

The Timeless Imagination of Yves Klein - Uncertainty and the Immateriality

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan

Centered around the work of French artist Yves Klein, active in the 1950s and 1960s, the exhibition also features other artists of his era, including artists of Italian Spatialism and the Japanese Gutai movement, as well as other more contemporary artists, in order to highlight the common theme of "immateriality" found in their work. In the post-war context, which could be described as a "tabula rasa," Yves Klein immediately established himself as a writer exploring a new humanity. He promoted the "dematerialization" of artworks, not depending solely on materials and support for his works, and thus had a profound influence not only on his contemporaries, but also on subsequent generations of artists. Today we are affected by a myriad of "invisible things" such as climate change, viruses, or the confusion generated by the informational environment presented by the Internet, and in the midst of these immaterial uncertainties we are confronted with many catastrophes and separations. The creative exploration of "immateriality" by these innovative artists gathered around Yves Klein in this exhibition should give us the imagination to overcome the uncertain present we face today.