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83. YVES KLEIN,
6 September - 23 November 1997
A total of 86 works by the French painter and sculptor
Yves Klein (1928-1962) were on display in the Sara Hildén Art Museum
from 6 September - 23 November 1997. Both floors of the museum were used
for the exhibition, which presented the full range of work produced by
the artist: these included monochrome paintings done in different
colours;
blue paintings (International Klein Blue); imprints direct from the human
body, i.e. anthropometries; fire paintings made with a flame-thrower;
sponge sculptures and reliefs; blue map reliefs; gold leaf paintings,
ie monogolds; monopinks; cosmogonies, round blue discs; portrait
sculptures;
as well as different types of blue sculptures.
Paintings and sculptures only accounted for a small part
of Yves Klein’s extensive oeuvre. The exhibition in the Sara Hildén
Art Museum also included sketches of aerial architectural projects, fire
wall plans as well as his fountain projects. In addition, there were many
photographs, original letters, books, invitation cards, catalogues,
posters, records, recordings, videos, manuscripts, notes, maquettes and
drawings,
all of which sheded light on Klein’s varied artistic production.
Although Klein’s artistic career lasted for only
eight years (1954-1962), he changed the conventional concept of a work
of art and art in general, as well as the production of art, the exhibition
of art and the role of the artist. By moving freely in the world of the
pictorial arts, the theatre, architecture, film and literature, he also
demolished the boundaries between the different forms of art.
Klein’s single-coloured blue paintings are the best
known of his works. Klein adopted the monochromatic aesthetic and the
colour blue in order to remove all expressive and representative elements
from the work. Blue signified indefinableness and immaterialness.
Yves Klein was an artistic genius overflowing with creativity
and vitality, a magician who turned everything into art by his touch or
his presence. Klein emphasized in particular the spiritual being of art.
By rebelling against conventional attitudes which threatened to restrict
the concept of art or to squeeze art into a rather narrow definition,
Klein exploded the narrow concept of Modernism and paved the way for
postmoderism.
The Yves Klein exhibition was the result of international cooperation, in which the Museet for samtidskunst in Oslo
participated,
together with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and the Yves Klein
Archives in Arizona and Paris. The exhibition in Finland was sponsored
by the Ministry of Education, the Association Française d’Action
Artistique (AFAA) and the Centre Culturel Français in Helsinki.
Catalogue:
Yves Klein
1997, 216 pages
The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
ISBN 82-91727-01-5
Price FIM 100
14,553 visitors attended the exhibition
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