YVES KLEIN (Nice, 1928-Paris, 1962). Lot n° 74

YVES KLEIN (Nice, 1928-Paris, 1962). "Table bleu. Designed in 1961. Produced from 1963. Glass and plexiglass, wood, steel, international Klein blue pigment. Measurements: 125 x 100 x 37 cm. In the early 1960s Klein endeavored to enter the world of furniture design with the creation of three elegant tables with fillings in striking materials, which seem to be suspended in a boundless space thanks to the transparency of the methacrylate or glass. The edition of these tables began in 1963, shortly after his death, and under the supervision of his widow, Rotraut Klein-Moquay, based on a 1961 Klein design. The three versions are differentiated by their colors, those most closely linked to the artist: Klein blue, the pink better known as "Monopink" and the golden yellow "Monogold". Each table has a plastic label that functions as an authenticity plate with the reference numbering and the facsimile of Rotraut Klein-Moquay's signature. A key artist of the neo-Dadaist movement, Yves Klein was born into a family of artists, although he began his career as a judoka. Deeply attracted by the philosophy and practice of judo, he studied at the Kodokan Institute in Tokyo, whose judo school is strongly influenced by Zen philosophy. Also from a very young age Klein became interested in the Christian religiosity of the Rosicrucian Order, combining the search for a state of emptiness and total harmony of Zen with the ritual and immateriality of the Rosicrucians. These aspects will remain in his personality for the rest of his life, and will have their expression in his art. Klein began painting in the 1950s, and presented himself as a visual artist at the 1955 Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris, with the monochrome "Expression of the Universe in the Color Minium Orange". However, the Salon rejected his work, arguing that a single color was not enough to create a painting. In this first stage Klein will make monochrome works, using a roller and not a brush to eliminate any trace of the artist's hand. Color becomes the protagonist, as materialized sensibility, as sensory perception. In particular, the most important color for him will be blue, to which the artist attributes the most abstract motifs of tangible nature, such as the sky and the sea. In this context, Klein searched for a long time for a blue that preserved the original luminosity of the pigment, until he came up with IKB (International Klein Blue). This is a deep ultramarine blue that the artist himself developed and patented. Throughout his career he showed his work in exhibitions held in cities such as Milan, Paris, Dusseldorf and London, gaining rapid international recognition. He also explored beyond painting, proposing a personal architectural idea that replaces walls with air currents, or with exhibitions such as "Le Vide" (Paris, 1958), in which he presented a completely empty room, painted by him in white. He has also made outstanding series such as "Anthropometries", body prints in blue, pink or gold, and "Cosmogonies", where Klein captures the traces of wind and rain. Works by Yves Klein are currently on view in major museums around the world, including MoMA, the Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museums in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Gallery in London, the MUMOK in Vienna, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the MNCARS in Madrid, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome and other public and private collections.