Yves Klein: Into the Void

image from: The Walker Art Center- Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers

October 23 2010 to February 13 2011 Galleries 4, 5, and 6

Yves Klein, European Romanticist and acclaimed Post-Modern artist, sought spiritual insight for viewers, in which he was the medium of revelation. Unlike American action painters, Klein worked to guide the world into the cosmic order. It was in Spain that Klein began painting seriously, with pure pigments, gold leaf, fire, water, and even the female body. Klein worked to combine dramatic flair and tendency toward a more directly physical expression involving the aura of mysticism.

Particularly, Klein worked to suggest experience of the void. Klein sought to create an experience with the void with the use of monochromatic color schemes. He explained, to young critic Pierre Restany that the, "diffusion of energy in space, its stabilization by pure color, and its impregnating effect on sensitivity", were the conclusions in the use of monochromatic color. Klein intended to fix a focus for the cosmic energies traveling through space, and, in 1956, he limited his color palette to blue in an attempt to reach these cosmic energies.

Recently, an Yves Klein exhibit has been placed in the Walker Art Center, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Numerous amounts of Klein's work are shown throughout the art center in an exhibition titled, "Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers". This was the first, major retrospective, time in 30 years that his work has been shown here in the United States. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, documents, photographs, and films cover a great deal of the Walker, so that viewers may experience the "void".

The Orientation to Art and Design class at the College of Visual Arts, visited the Walker Art Center in pursuits to see the Yves Klein exhibit. I, being apart of the class, had set notions towards Yves Klein through my previous studies of himself as an artist. I had believed Klein was like all other cooky-crazy and post-modern artists, through his unusual compositional choices and use of monochromatic colors. Even with proper studies of his work, I still believed Klein to not be as an impressive as the world had made him out to be. However, the moment I entered the portion of the gallery with Klein's work, I was overwhelmed with so many different emotions. Total bliss had filled my mind and body as I stood in awe starring at his monochromatic work, created in the most brilliant shade of blue. Placed in the center of the gallery was a large installation that contained a tub-like fixture containing gallons upon gallons of blue pigment. The eye-watering coloring is so bold, yet the immense amounts of it bring about a sense of relaxation and serenity. It was then I understood the nature of Klein's work, and felt as if all my studies of him and his philosophical art tied together right before my eyes.

Furthermore, Yves Klein worked throughout his short lived life to stimulate, frighten, and exhilarate viewers through his magnificent spin-off of Post-Modern art. He devised a new way of applying his medium, through the use of the human body, and has challenged viewers to answer the question: What is art? Klein sought to achieve immaterial spirituality through pure color, and after experiencing his work in person, I can properly state that he is a man who has achieved this.

Category, By. "Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers." Walker Art Center - Calendar. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. .Web.

Fineberg, Jonathan. Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2000. Print.

"Off Center." Walker Blogs. 05 Oct. 2010. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. . Web.