Yves Klein Guggenheim Bilbao 2005

Yves Klein was regarded as a visionary even by his contemporaries. An enfant terrible and outstanding judo enthusiast whose spectacular performances attracted considerable attention in the art world, Klein created a following that only intensified in the wake of his premature death. Having anticipated numerous movements such as Happenings, Performance, Land and Body Art, and Conceptual Art, Klein's manifold oeuvre, realized within a period of only eight years, continues to exercise a decisive influence to this day. This comprehensive retrospective, presented by the Schirn Kunsthalle gallery in Frankfurt, includes over 100 works representing Klein's entire career from his first monochromes in orange, yellow, green, pink, black, and white, to his famous Klein blue monochromes, his sponge relief sculptures, his much-discussed Anthropometries, for which he used female models as live brushes, his monogold paintings, and his last experiments with fire and elements of nature.