International Klein Blue

International Klein Blue is a special shade of blue. It formula registered in 1960 by the French abstractionist Yves Klein.

For Klein, blue color had a special meaning. Klein believed that all other colors cause persistent associations in people, unlike blue, which reminds only of the most abstract things in the world — the sky and the sea.

Klein tried to keep a rich shade of velvet ultramarine, but color disappeared in contact with the fixative. 

Paris-based paint dealer Edouard Adam helped Klein to achieve the desired effect. He advised to use Rhodopas M60A synthetic resin, developed by the pharmaceutical company Rhône-Poulenc.

International Klein Blue color was not patented — it was against to French law, so Klein registered the technology itself.

Klein's “blue period” began several years before the invention of International Klein Blue. So, in 1957, he opened an exhibition in Milan, on which he present 11 absolutely identical blue canvases measuring 78 by 56 cm.

Klein created 194 blue canvases during short career (the artist died at the age of 34 from a heart attack)

The most famous blue works were “anthropometry” (human body science), creation of which was turned into a real performance. Klein poured paint on completely naked girls-models, and then asked them to leave prints on canvas. During such events, guests drank blue cocktails, under the “Monotonous Symphony” — the author's monotonous composition consisted of only one accord.

The actual recording of one of these performances: Yves Klein — Blue Women Art — 1962

After receiving a patent in the summer of 1960, Klein began to create sculptures in blue.

Unfortunately, Yves Klein died in 1962, just two years after the creation of a unique paint...