Born in Nice on this day in 1928, Yves Klein lived only 34 years, but managed to reshape what art could be in daring ways. A painter and philosopher who patented his own shade of ultramarine — now known as International Klein Blue — he treated colour as something akin to a spiritual force. An important member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme, Klein trusted that art existed far beyond the canvas, in the invisible void. He died in Paris in 1962, but the power of his blue endures.
To mark his birthday, Our Culture shares five quotes that hint at Klein’s inner world and help you view blue in a whole new light:
“My paintings are but the ashes of my art.”
“I have written my name on the far side of the sky.”
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“Blue has no dimensions, it is beyond dimensions, whereas the other colours are not…”
“I did not like the nothing, and it is thus that I met the empty, the deep empty, the depth of the blue.”
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