Yves Klein

Yves Klein (1928–1962) was a French artist associated with postwar abstraction, Nouveau Réalisme, and some of the most radical artistic experiments of the 1950s and early 1960s. Born in Nice to painter parents, Klein moved between Nice, London, Madrid, and Paris before establishing himself within the Parisian avant garde during the 1950s.

Paris became the centre of his artistic career from the mid 1950s onward, particularly through his association with Colette Allendy and later Iris Clert. There he developed his monochrome paintings, especially the iconic International Klein Blue (IKB), alongside performances, “Anthropometries,” and immaterial works that challenged conventional definitions of painting and artistic authorship. Closely connected to the intellectual and artistic circles of postwar Paris, Klein became a central figure in debates surrounding materiality, spirituality, and the dematerialisation of art before his early death in Paris in 1962.