Yves Klein - Nuit Banai

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Résumé :
Among his many captivating exploits, the French artist Yves Klein (1928-1962) invented his own brand of color: the inimitable International Klein Blue. Denounced as a charlatan and feted as a mystic, Klein scandalized the art world with his enthusiastic embrace of the highs and lows of postwar mass culture and his exploitation of controversial publicity tactics. Today it is clear that Klein was not only one of the most radical artists of the postwar period but was also an iconic role model for contemporary practices: he reinvented abstract painting, conceived new horizons for performance art, and was a trailblazer in the interdisciplinary realm of land, body, and conceptual art.
Nuit Banai examines the relationship between Klein's brief but incandescent life and his wide repertoire of artistic practices. The book establishes that Klein's brilliance was above all performative, as he created and inhabited a cast of public identities: Bourgeois, Judo expert, Painter, Avant-garde Artist, Charlatan, Collaborator, Politician, Middle-Class Mystic, Fascist, and Showman. With each persona, Klein invented new ways to communicate his paradoxical message of spiritual enlightenment and dada iconoclasm to an unsuspecting, bemused, and entranced audience.

Biographie:
Nuit Banai is an art historian, critic, and curator who teaches in the department of art history at the University of Vienna. She is a contributor to the catalog accompanying the Pompidou Centre Exhibition Yves Klein: Corps, Couleur, Immat?riel in 2006-07and is a regular contributor to Artforum International magazine.
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Sommaire:
Denounced as a charlatan and f?ted as a mystic, French artist Yves Klein (1928-62) scandalized the art world with his enthusiastic embrace of postwar mass culture and his exploitation of controversial publicity tactics. Today, we know Yves Klein not only as one of the most radical artists of the postwar period, but also as an iconic role model for contemporary practices--he reinvented abstract painting, conceived new horizons for performance art, and was a trailblazer in the realm of land, body, and conceptual art. In this new critical biography, Nuit Banai examines the relationship between Klein's brief life and his wide repertoire of artistic practices.

While surveying the artist's life, Banai establishes that Klein's brilliance was, above all, performative, revealing that he created and inhabited myriad public identities: bourgeois, judo expert, painter, avant-garde artist, collaborator, politician, fascist, and showman, among others. With each persona, Banai shows, Klein invented new ways to communicate his paradoxical message of spiritual enlightenment and Dada iconoclasm to a rapt and unsuspecting audience. Illuminating the many facets of Klein's influential artistic career, Yves Klein is an invaluable introduction to the inventor of the inimitable International Klein Blue....