Yves Klein

In 1957 Yves Klein took out a patent on a certain blue, an intense brilliant ultramarine which he called International Klein Blue (IKB). His apparently identical monochrome paintings were made with sponges or rollers or, in a series known as Anthropometries, with what he called 'living brushes' -- models soaked in blue paint who pressed themselves against sheets of paper.

Klein was a major figure in the French Nouveaux Realistes group and had a profound influence on contemporary art, in particular Conceptual art, Body art, happenings and performance -- a 1960 photograph, Leap into the Void, shows Klein apparently jumping head first from the roof of a house. His death in 1962 robbed the art world of one of its most brilliant stars. He was just 34.

This lavishly illustrated monograph spans Klein's entire career, and includes many unpublished documents and rare and famous pieces, all put into context by the philosophical aspect of his work -- reflections on the future, the relationship between man and the cosmos, and the void.