I can’t say that I fully appreciated the Yves Klein exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Knowing nothing, I’d got the impression before going that YK held an important place in the development of modern conceptual and performance art. Having been, I can still believe this is the case but I’m not exactly hankering after more.
I dutifully read the pamphlet. I learned that Yves Klein was keen on a particular blue which he developed and patented in the late 1950s (International Klein Blue - IKB, so chic it is the ground colour for the Selfridge Building in Birmingham, UK). Much of his work is textural canvases, painted natural sponges - and this globe - entirely in IKB. Later on YK included gold (leaf) and pink in his palette. There were also three aspects to his work, Corps, Couleur, Immatériel (Body, Colour, Immaterial) - in short (I think) he was interested in colour as a link between the body and the spritual or conceptual.
This is a particularly unimaginatively presented exhibition. Off-white wall after off-white wall is not inventive and a very poor show for the National Museum of Modern Art. Also, the first couple of rooms, in concentrating on blue gritty canvases are never going to intrigue. Some of the stuff to follow would have remained in the realm of bizarre for me if I hadn’t tagged onto a guided tour. Top marks for this tour guide who knew her stuff and was infectiously enthusiastic. Everything became so much more understandable and interesting. It was clear she thought it was all important stuff but also enjoyed acknowledging the ludicrous and fun elements.
So, getting ladies to paste IKB paint all over themselves and then press their bodies against a large canvas while an orchestra plays a single-note symphony was ground-breaking. As was dragging similarly daubed ladies across large sheets of paper. Different, but also driving forward conceptual art, are the paintings made by fire and water - sooty marks on board. YK is obviously to blame for any vacuous performance and conceptual art we have endured in the last forty-odd years!
The most interesting item (for a few minutes at least) was a painted (blue…) canvas which recorded a journey. He’d strapped the canvas to the top of a car and then driven to the sea-side - the sun, wind and rain distressed the painting and hence this was a recording of the journey!
I’ll leave Yves Klein and the like for more arty types. At least I can say I gave it a go.
Yves Klein - Corps, Couleur, Immatériel, Centre Pompidou, Paris until 5 February 2007.
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