Poster, Yves Klein, Blue sponge relief RE 17, 1960

Dimensions: 50 x 70 cm

Yves Klein's monochrome paintings initially aroused strong skepticism in 1950s Europe. He used rollers instead of brushes and was seen as having more in common with an industrial painter than with an artist. Klein claimed that the essence of art is in the color, and especially in the blue. He patented the intensely deep blue color IKB (International Klein Blue), a color with a new binder that he had developed. With IKB, the surface of the painting becomes matte like velvet and the pigment grains appear to lie loosely on the canvas. At first, Klein painted monochrome flat canvases. Later, he created reliefs by attaching sponges of different sizes - soaked in IKB - to the canvases, as in this work from 1960.

The motif on this poster is a work of art in the collection of Moderna Museet.

Art.no: MOM47

© Yves Klein/BUS 2007