Lot Essay
This work is recorded in the Yves Klein Archives under no. IKB 267
Pierre Restany, in his book on Yves Klein, recalls the birth of the IKB paintings: "During the following summer, we had plenty of time, Yves and I, to draw the inevitable conclusion: the choice of a single colour. Yves did not hesitate for a moment; it was blue. The colour of the sky and the sea, of his childhood, of the monochrome revelation of 1946. He wavered for a moment among several shades and values of blue, and finally settled on a very pronounced tone of ultramarine blue, which he later was to call I.K.B., 'International Klein Blue.'"
The choice of a single blue,I.K.B., corresponded to a conceptualization of colour. This explained the unleashing of Klein's imagination and the fertility of his production at this particular stage of his carrer. Blue, the materialization of the momochrome concept, lent itself to a multitude of impregnation situations.
Nineteen fifty-seven, the year in which IKB 267 was executed, was a crucial year in Klein's work, a year of intense theoretical reflection and fruitful creation, rich in actual achievements and accompanied by a vast program of public manifestations, exhibitions, debates, and statements of position. The climate of strain was a favourable one. It was in constant exaltation that Yves Klein found the true rhythm of his inner life and creation.
Pierre Restany, in his book on Yves Klein, recalls the birth of the IKB paintings: "During the following summer, we had plenty of time, Yves and I, to draw the inevitable conclusion: the choice of a single colour. Yves did not hesitate for a moment; it was blue. The colour of the sky and the sea, of his childhood, of the monochrome revelation of 1946. He wavered for a moment among several shades and values of blue, and finally settled on a very pronounced tone of ultramarine blue, which he later was to call I.K.B., 'International Klein Blue.'"
The choice of a single blue,I.K.B., corresponded to a conceptualization of colour. This explained the unleashing of Klein's imagination and the fertility of his production at this particular stage of his carrer. Blue, the materialization of the momochrome concept, lent itself to a multitude of impregnation situations.
Nineteen fifty-seven, the year in which IKB 267 was executed, was a crucial year in Klein's work, a year of intense theoretical reflection and fruitful creation, rich in actual achievements and accompanied by a vast program of public manifestations, exhibitions, debates, and statements of position. The climate of strain was a favourable one. It was in constant exaltation that Yves Klein found the true rhythm of his inner life and creation.