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?
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