Eponge bleue No. SE 253, 1961

Highly regarded as one of the most influential and controversial artists to emerge in the 1950’s, Yves Klein was a pioneer in the field of Performance Art and is most notable for his extensive use of the colour blue. One of his most acclaimed exhibitions was ‘Proposition Monochrome; Blue Epoch’ in which Klein exhibited 11 monochrome canvases, all painted identically using an ultramarine pigment and suspended in ‘Rhodopas’ - a synthetic resin that Klein described as ‘The Medium’; interestingly, each canvas was priced differently, fulfilling Klein’s aim to have viewers see something unique in a canvas that another buyer did not - the blue used for this work was later trademarked by Klein as International Klein Blue. Displaying a disdain for convention throughout his career, Klein exhibited a number of unorthodox works – The Void was an exhibition that consisted of an almost-bare room featuring only a large cabinet – the window was painted blue and a blue curtain was hung in the entrance of the lobby; 3000 people queued up to be allowed entrance to this empty room.