Yves Klein at Contemporary Art & Design

Yves Klein, 'Untitled Blue Monochrome (IKB 327)'

Born in 1928 in Nice, France, Yves Klein was one of the frontrunners of the nouveau réalism art movement and is now best known for his Klein blue objects. In his all too short life, he was also a pioneer of performance art, the most disruptive art movement after Cubism.

One interpretation of what drove Klein was 'everythingness'. Being able to embrace and own the beautiful. He conquered the azure sky by simply claiming to have invented its color, International Klein Blue (IKB), which he did in 1957. IKB ran like a blue thread through his art, and he used it for several different types of monochrome works in a variety of materials. It was also used in several of his most famous series, such as "Anthropometry" where naked women painted with pigment made body prints on canvas.

The auction's 'Untitled Blue Monochrome (IKB 327)' is painted with rollers and has a very rich and textured surface. In a 1959 lecture at the Sorbonne by Yves Klein, Klein said that the blue monochromes are recognizable and similar in appearance, yet unique and different from each other. This makes this work particularly interesting, even though each blue monochrome is made with the same pigment.