OUGD404 - International Klein Blue

International Klein Blue, created and registered by Yves Klein in 1957, was described by Klein as 'a Blue in itself, disengaged from all functional justification'. 

IKB 191 (1962)

Klein began to paint ultramarine monochrome paintings in the late 40's but was dissatisfied. The perfect blue colour was evading him.
He had specific difficulties creating a paint from the powder. In Klein's opinion, the fixatives used would extinguish the colour of the pigment. By enlisting the help of an art supplier, Edouard Adam, and finding a colourless fixative, Klein was able to create a colour (pigment) conserving all of the 'energy' of the powder. 

At the end of the 1940's, Klein took up monochrome paintings. He described the practice as "a means of painting that is against painting, against all the anxieties of life, against everything". After creating IKB, Klein entered his "blue" period (1955 - 62) using nothing but the colour to create hundreds of pieces, using a variety of media. This even included sculptures and performance pieces, where models would be painted in the colour and then walk and roll onto canvases.

IKB is striking and shocking. Whereas Klein describes it as a form of pure light, Maggie Nelson - an art critic - calls it too much. This surely echoes the sentiments of many, as I feel the colour is a dividing topic. The intensity of the colour, meant to depict 'cosmic space' allows it to stand out, and even creates hallucinatory overtones. IKB has become a colour famous in the art and design world. 

For example, a designer by the name of Valeria McCulloch, who has worn only blue for over 16 years, once claimed it was the only colour she wore.

Even more prominently, Klein Blue is the colour used by the Blue Man Group - a performance art company. The group perform musical and theatre numbers whilst wearing black clothes, and any visible skin is painted in IKB.

William Gibson used the colour in his novel Zero History. One of the characters has a suit made out of the colour, as he found it amusing that it frequently makes other people uncomfortable, due to its intensity. I found this interesting as a colour cannot be shown in a book, so the colour is almost infamous enough to be known to a novelist and used in this context.