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• 1 2020-03-26T20:34:04+00:00 Yves Klein's Anthropometries 1 Amir Arami image_header 2020-03-26T20:34:04+00:00 Although Yves Klein's life and career were short-lived he helped change the way in which we think about art and how it is created. Klein was born on April 28th, 1928 and died at the age of 35 from a heart attack on June 6th, 1962. Klein's art is difficult to fully understand or grasp because he was extremely detached and sarcastic. The creative process Klein utilized while making Anthropometries was unique in that he didn’t confine himself to the traditional methods of creating art. The name Anthropometries comes from the greek word “Anthropometry” which refers to the measurement of the human individual. Originally, he paid nude models to come hangout in his art studio while he made his monochrome artworks. He did this purely because of the atmosphere that it created while he worked. The  models did not like just hanging around in his studio, so he allowed them to start participating in the creation of the art pieces. From this, he developed the idea of having the women cover themselves in paint and using their bodies as the brushes. He then started to hold live performances in which he would wear a tuxedo and have an orchestra play music while naked women covered themselves in blue paint and then rubbed themselves on the walls and ground[1].
  
  Klein had lots of ideas and theories which led him to the creation of Anthropometries. Klein talked about the idea of whether physically making the painting takes away from its value or not and what it means to be a painter or an artisan. In his journal, Klein talks about how people think the value of a piece of art changes based on whether the artist made it him or herself or just orchestrated the making of the art. He says that the price of the piece forces the viewer to see value in a painting when in reality the actual value of the art is intangible and cannot be determined by monetary value. He explains how the only way people can evaluate the importance or value of an art piece is by looking at the price on the art work. Although the price of the painting and the value are two different things, for most people, the price of the painting plays a big role in determining the value of the work itself. The second topic he discusses is what it means to be a painter or artist. He says that being a famous painter or artist doesn’t necessarily give value to your creativity; all it does is give a price to your signature. Being a famous artist does nothing more than assign monetary value to the things you produce. By calling himself a painter or artist without wanting any monetary gain completely changes the idea of what a painter or artist is. He also talks about how calling himself a painter and having everyone believe he is a painter while he doesn’t actually paint will be  “the most powerful pictorial work of this age”. These ideas and theories are what allowed Klein to think outside the box when I came to art mediums. His ideas from Anthropometries transferred over into some of Klein’s other art.[2]
  
  Klein loved the idea of the “living brushes”. After the creation of Anthropometrics, he decided to do a similarly styled piece with fire. He would create the outlines of the women and then soak the outlines in water. After that, he would use a flamethrower to darken the rest of the canvas so you could see the outline of the women. Although he used a different medium, he still used the idea of the “living brushes”. He called these pieces “Fire Paintings”. The name perfectly suits the art because he literally used fire to paint the naked women.[3]
  
  Klein’s performance was unprecedented in that it redefined what it means to be an art viewer. In the photos of the performance’s audience, you can see how either uncomfortable or interested the viewers of the performance were. They were either smiling, observing pensively, or left  dumbfounded by what they are witnessing. Klein also liked to play with Henri Matisse’s cutouts. Klein would create pieces with women in similar formations to Matisse’s but using paint and real humans as the paint brush. Matisse created his art by cutting out pieces of paper and gluing the pieces down. Matisse used a more abstract form of depicting the human body while Klein used real people and real paint.
  
  One point of view on Yves Klein’s Anthropometries that I find extremely interesting is that of one of the women who was used as a “living brush”. An interview was conducted in 2013 with Elena Palumbo-Mosca, one of the “living brushes”, and her view on Anthropometries is does not align with what you would expect. Elena Palumbo-Mosca met Klein while she was working and living in Nice, France. They both ended up living in Paris years later, when the creation of Anthropometries took place. They asked her about how it felt to be used as an object in order to make a painting. She then explains how her experience working with Klein was very good. He treated the women extremely respectfully, as if they were collaborators on the painting, not just objects being used for their bodies. She then says how although she helped create the painting, it was still Klein's work. He was the  mastermind behind the artwork even though her and the other nude models were the ones who made it. At the end of the interview she says she was “lucky to participate in this experience. From an outside perspective, people would assume that partaking in the creation of this kind of artwork would be a degrading or awful experience. To hear one of the women who helped create this artwork say that she felt lucky to be apart of this piece of art is extremely interesting considering how people would view this today. A majority of people would consider this degrading to women, but in actuality, the women involved found the experience to be empowering and enjoyable.[4]
  
  Another interview was conducted with Rotraut Klein-Moquay. Rotraut started out as an assistant and model for Klein, but they ended up falling in love and getting married in 1962. Sadly, Klein died six months after while Rotraut was pregnant with their child. She was never in the live performances, but she did prints with Klein in his studio. He liked to have her help him with his painting because she was always in his studio, so when he had an idea or a stroke of creativity, he could make what he was thinking right away. She also describes the making of the prints as being “pleasant and special” which shows you how Klein treated his models when he created these pieces. The first time she saw one of her prints, she said it almost felt as if her soul was on the canvas. She had a hard time explaining the feeling she felt but she said it was like looking at a physical representation of her soul. She felt extremely connected with the piece of art. Nobody had ever worked with models in the way that Yves Klein did before. He was a pioneer when it came to the “living brushes” and how these models played a huge role in his art. The new use for the models made the models very happy. They were always extremely excited to work with him. Also, the interview says how when Klein would paint with a brush, it would frustrate him. He didn’t like having to paint and then walk away to look at it again. By him standing back and just orchestrating the models, it allowed him to always be looking at the whole painting instead of having to go back and forth. Rotraut then talks about how beautiful and natural the whole experience of being nude and covering yourself in paint was. She said she never felt weird or uncomfortable. Everything just came very naturally. She felt a need to help him in anyway she could with his work. Whether it was covering herself in paint or being his assistant, she wanted to help him in any way she could.[5]
  
  Another critical aspect of Anthropometries is the color of paint used. In all of Klein Anthropometries paintings, he used a color called “klein blue” that he created himself. He started off using Ultramarine blue, but then realized how it faded over time. That's when he created his shade of blue. He mainly used only “klein blue” for the rest of his life[6]. There is a series he did called blue monochrome where he painted canvases in his custom blue paint. When he made these, he put all of these fully blue canvases up for sale at different prices even though they were the same[7]. Klein used this color throughout a lot of his painted. This use of this color partly defined his artwork. This vibrant blue color added a new dimension to the Anthropometries paintings. If he used black or just a normal blue the painting would stand out as much as they do from other artworks. Without this “klein blue”, The Anthropometries series would lose a lot of what makes them so special.
   

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  [1] Steinmetz, J., Cassils, H., & Leary, C. (2006). Behind Enemy Lines: Toxic Titties Infiltrate Vanessa Beecroft. Signs, 31(3), 753-783. doi:10.1086/499083

  [2] De Duve, T., & Krauss, R. (1989). Yves Klein, or The Dead Dealer. October, 49, 73-90. doi:10.2307/778734

  [3] Zimmermann, A. (2002). "Sorry for Having to Make You Suffer": Body, Spectator, and the Gaze in the Performances of Yves Klein, Gina Pane, and Orlan. Discourse, 24(3), 27-46. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.chapman.edu/stable/41389654

  [4] Tate. “Yves Klein, Anthropometries – TateShots.” Tate. Accessed December 7, 2019. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/yves-klein-1418/yves-klein-anthropometries.

  [5] Youtube. Louisiana Channel, January 10, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjAcXJeqvCw.

  [6] “Yves Klein: The Artist Who Invented a Color.” Mental Floss, February 8, 2017. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/91937/yves-klein-artist-who-invented-color.

  [7] Klein, Yves. “Yves Klein. Blue Monochrome. 1961: MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/80103.
  
  Bibliography
  
  Back Matter. (1999). Grand Street, (67). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.chapman.edu/stable/25008459
  
  De Duve, T., & Krauss, R. (1989). Yves Klein, or The Dead Dealer. October, 49, 73-90. doi:10.2307/778734
  Klein, Yves. “Yves Klein. Blue Monochrome. 1961: MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/80103
  
  Steinmetz, J., Cassils, H., & Leary, C. (2006). Behind Enemy Lines: Toxic Titties Infiltrate Vanessa Beecroft. Signs, 31(3), 753-783. doi:10.1086/499083
  
  STRICK, J. (1992). Notes on Some Instances of Irony in Modern Pastoral. Studies in the History of Art, 36, 196-207.
  
  Tate. “Yves Klein, Anthropometries – TateShots.” Tate. Accessed December 7, 2019. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/yves-klein-1418/yves-klein-anthropometries.
  
  Youtube. Louisiana Channel, January 10, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjAcXJeqvCw.
  
  “Yves Klein: The Artist Who Invented a Color.” Mental Floss, February 8, 2017. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/91937/yves-klein-artist-who-invented-color.
  
  Zimmermann, A. (2002). "Sorry for Having to Make You Suffer": Body, Spectator, and the Gaze in the Performances of Yves Klein, Gina Pane, and Orlan. Discourse, 24(3), 27-46. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.chapman.edu/stable/41389654