© Jean Michalon
"My paintings are but the ashes of my art."
The best-known artist of New Realism from its inception, Klein preferred to use rollers instead of brushes so as to eliminate all traces of the artist's hand when applying the paint. For the artist, color is a “materialized sensibility”, the means by which he expresses his attempt to transform purely visual perception into a larger concept of sensory perception. More than looking, it is contemplation that Yves Klein calls for, a gaze at once protracted and profound. To him, art addresses the mind and suscitates a certain sensibility. Above all, Klein wishes for the viewer to immerse himself in the infinite space of colour, thus experiencing a heightened sensitivity towards the intangible.