Skulpturenpark Köln

The painter and conceptual artist Yves Klein (b.1928 in Nice, d.1962 in Paris) applied himself intensively both to monochrome painting and to the mystical Christian doctrines of the Society of Rosicrucians, and simultaneously to the martial art of judo. Klein was co-founder in 1960 with Arman and Claude Pascal of the Nouveau Réalistes. He considered his monochrome surfaces in patented IKB - International Klein Blue - pink and gold as the expression of the highest spirituality. His fire-sculptures stress their immateriality, and they combine material substance with performative ephemera with a view to attaining pure spiritual energy.