Yves Klein

French painter, sculptor and writer (1928-1962), he was soon influenced by the abstract painting of his mother. He did not have an artistic formal schooling but he made his first attemptings in painting in 1946, year in which he met Arman, who he later joined in the movement Neo Realism. Between 1949 and 1950, he worked at Robert Savage’s frame shop where he learnt the techniques of painting and gold leaf appliance. In 1950 he exposed in London his first works and in 1953 he exhibited a series of monochromatic paintings in Tokio. In 1956 Klein achieved great notoriety near the public and the critics, especially through the exhibition “Yves: Propositions monochromes” at the Galerie Colette Allendy, in Paris. In 1958 he executed the first Anthropométries: prints of feminine bodies covered in International Klein Blue and presents his first empty paintings. In 1960 he was a co-founding member of the group Neo Realists and created Cosmogonies, images created by the strength of the natural elements (rain, wind, leaves). In 1961 he executes the first embossed planetary and the first fire images. In 1983 he has a big retrospective at the Centre George Pompidou and in 1994 ath Ludwig Museum in Köln.

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