INTERNATIONAL KLEIN BLUE
Escape and infinity resonate today in Yves Klein’s Ultramarine
by KOD Staff
Artist Yves Klein grew up surrounded by the dizzying blues of the Cote d’Azur. Frustrated by the dulled pigments that were available to him, he collaborated with legendary colorist Edouard Adam to create a new, luminous blue that would represent escape and infinity. The result was ‘International Klein Blue’ (IKB). The color featured repeatedly in his work, often applied with a heavy, thick texture.
Klein’s obsession with blue gathered momentum: he believed in a Blue Revolution where everyone would benefit from the birth of IKB. He released 1001 blue balloons into the sky above Paris, he planned to paint Cleopatra’s needle blue and he even wrote to President Eisenhower, asking him to support his cause. Many of Klein’s paintings were simple blocks of blue – revealing a devotion to the deep and utopian color. At just 34 years old, Yves Klein suffered multiple heart-attacks and tragically died, leaving his legacy of IKB behind to creep beyond the boundaries of art and into photography, fashion and design.
Yves Klein, 'IKB 79', 1959
Photography by Eric Traore for Vogue Paris, 1998
Topshop, Fall Collection, 2012
Roger Hiorns, 'Seizure', 2008
Photography by Phil Poynter for Ponystep Magazine, 2011
Yves Klein, 'Tree Blue Sponge', 1962
James Turrell, 'Aten Reign', 2013
Michael Kors, NY Fashion Week, 2013
Yves Klein Coffee Table
