Klein, Yves

*28.04.1928 Nice - † 06.06.1962 Paris

biography

Klein, born in Nice on April 28, 1928, studied in his hometown between 1944 and 1946. He began developing his first monochrome paintings in 1950. After a stay in Spain, Klein moved to Paris in 1955, where he created numerous paintings in a matte blue color, which he patented in 1957 as IKB (International Klein Blue). He increasingly turned to so-called "happenings," in which the production and not just the result of a painting is important. In 1960, for example, he printed canvases with blue-painted female bodies while an orchestra played a symphony he had composed. Klein, who was one of the co-founders of "Nouveau Réalisme," died in Paris on June 6, 1962. His works were of great importance for the art of the 1960s and 1970s; he is one of the most important representatives of monochrome painting.