Attention Economy – June 4, 2023

Yves Klein. Anthropométrie de l'époque bleue (ANT 82). 1960. [Source: Yves Klein Archive]
Yves Klein. Anthropométrie de l’époque bleue (ANT 82). 1960. [Source: Yves Klein Archive]

  • Catherine Cabeen and Company: Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers; Opening Day at the Walker Art Center 102310 Catherine Cabeen: “As a woman artist who is investigating Klein’s work, I am very aware of the feminist critiques of Klein that call him a misogynist for things like wearing a tuxedo while women use their naked bodies to paint all around him. Have you spoken to any of the models for the Anthropomorphic? Do you know how they felt about their involvement in the work?” Daniel nodded and Rotraut’s face lit up with a huge smile. “That’s me.” She said, pointing to a huge canvas on a near wall, “we had so much fun!” Daniel said that he actually had requested letters from several of the models for a different catalog because he was so tired of those kinds of critiques when in fact the models unanimously remembered the events as exciting, and rigorous, ritualistic performances. Most of them were dancers who were as excited about having the movements of their bodies recorded as Klein was. “We got to be sensual and free.” Rotraut said, “and it was so fun to see the images your body would make!”
  • Yves Klein, at his very bluest - Features - Art - The Independent 030810
    Arifa Akbar: “It was a musical performance with a twist that sent tremors across the art world when it was staged in 1960. An artist wearing white gloves and a tuxedo emerged from behind a screen to conduct an orchestra in front of a tastefully dressed Parisian audience at the Rive Droite art gallery. As he did so, numerous naked women sashayed out carrying pots of blue paint. The paint – a shade that would later be immortalised as an Yves Klein blue – was smeared by the models on to their naked breasts, pubic area and the length of their torsos. Some of these women got down on the floor and began writhing their bodies in puddles of blue paint before, as “living paint-brushes”, pressing themselves against a blank canvas to create a series of artworks.
  • MILKY PINKY WAY: BLUE KLEIN
  • Yves Klein’s FC-1
    Klein’s FC 1 represents the pinnacle of the artist’s career, not only in chronological terms, but also in a deeply spiritual way. By placing the sensual apparitions of the female body amongst the flame bursts and smoke shadows, Klein combines life and death in way that speaks to the fragility of life, but also to its permanence. On the one hand, there is a clear sense of destructive power of the flame, yet on the other the presence of the curvaceous female form hints at the eternal power life that transcends all things.
  • Yves Klein Archives
    With galleries of Klein’s work, including original film footage for “Anthropométrie de l’Époque bleue” (2’26)
    March 9, 2023
  • Inside Art - Yves Klein Works Attract Attention in Sales and Exhibitions - NYTimes.com 031112
    Four years in the making, “Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers” will open in May at the Hirshhorn and will include more than 100 works arranged thematically. Loans are coming from the artist’s archives, institutions in Europe and the United States, and private collections.

Artists Rotraut and Yves Klein ca. 1962. [Source: Catherine Cabeen and Company]
Artists Rotraut and Yves Klein ca. 1962. [Source: Catherine Cabeen and Company]

This entry was posted in attention economy and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.