Yves Klein

Visionary French artist who redefined conceptual art through his patented International Klein Blue and provocative performance pieces.

Yves Klein (1928–1962) disrupted the art world by treating void and immateriality as artistic mediums. His 1960 Leap into the Void photograph, showing him diving off a building, epitomized his fascination with transcending physical limits. Klein’s most enduring legacy is International Klein Blue (IKB), a ultramarine pigment he patented in 1960 to liberate color from the confines of form.

In 1958, Klein exhibited The Void—an empty Paris gallery painted white—challenging viewers to perceive presence in absence. His Anthropometry series involved nude models covered in IKB paint dragged across canvases, merging performance and painting while critiquing authorship.

Klein’s Zone de Sensibilité Picturale Immatérielle (1959–62) sold empty spaces in exchange for gold, half of which he ritually discarded into the Seine. This act, documented with certificates of authenticity, questioned art’s commodification. Though ridiculed during his lifetime, Klein’s work presaged conceptual art, performance art, and institutional critique.