Yves Klein

In the second section of chapter six, I found the discussion of Yves Klein’s work the most interesting. Klein opposed the idea of the studio as concealed away from the eyes of the viewer where the isolated artist works. He wanted to reveal his creative processes to an audience. Additionally, Klein challenged art historical traditions of the relationship between artist and model in the studio by making the model “…the effective atmosphere of the flesh itself. Working with somewhat bemused models Klein realized that he did not have to paint from models at all, but could paint with them (p. 145).” This is best exemplified in his series, The Anthropometries of the Blue Period, in which Klein directed nude models to use their bodies to disperse blue paint across canvases in front of an audience. When these canvases are displayed outside of the context of performance and in a gallery, do they simply represent a trace of what the body once performed? Which is more effective: witnessing the performance itself or viewing them simply as paintings?

Klein enjoyed that the paintings in his series were created from “immediate experience,” and also that he “stayed clean, no longer dirtied with color unlike the paint-smeared women (p. 145).” Here, Klein equates color with dirtiness and instead the “paint smeared women” are burdened with this uncleanliness. Because of Klein’s overt disdain to involve his own body in the act of painting, how can this limited participation of his body shape how we perceive this as distinctly "his” performance?