Ocula Report 4th Kochi-Muziris Biennale: Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life 15 Feb 2019 : Natalie King for Ocula 'Poems are like sentences that have taken their clothes off.' Marlene Dumas' poetic and sensual refrain accompanies her figurative watercolours on view in Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life, the fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) in the southern state of Kerala, India (12 December 2018–29 March 2019).Dumas' new series...
Ocula Conversation Ellen Altfest The paintings of Ellen Altfest are ethereal in their detail. Fields of minutiae come together as pulsating images; small brushstrokes of oil paint accumulate over a series of months to single out seemingly innocuous subjects, such as a hand resting atop patterned fabric (The Hand, 2011) or a deep green cactus reaching upwards from beneath a bed of...
Ocula Report Colomboscope 2019: Cross Currents and Dissonance 8 Feb 2019 : Nada Raza for Ocula On the rooftop of the former Rio Hotel complex in Colombo, it was hard to ignore the high-rise buildings, still under construction, blocking all but a sliver of what used to be an open view over Slave Island, once an island on Beira Lake that housed slaves in the 19th century, and now a downtown suburb. The hotel was set alight during the...
Born in 1928, Yves Klein was a French artist most recognized for his colour field paintings and committment to the colour blue. Klein began to paint in the 1940s and formulate his first monochromatic theories which resulted in stark canvases of yellow, pink, orange, red, and green. However, in 1957 he abandoned the use of other colours in favour of the colour blue with the exhibition Proposition Monochrome: Blue Epoch. The exhibition comprised of eleven identical blue canvases made use of a colour that he and a chemist developed called the 'International Klein Blue'. The colour, made from pure colour pigments and a binding medium, was thought by Klein to evoke the boundlessness and immateriality of his utopian view of the world. As well as using conventional methods of painting, Klein also had naked women covered in blue paint drag their bodies across a surface to create a series of works called Anthropometries. He is considered an important figure in Post-War art as his work represents a response to the monochrome style present in the twentieth century. His work is most-notably included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Klein died in Paris of a heart attack in 1962.
Yves KleinTable Monopink™, 1961/1963 Rose madder pigment, glass, plexiglass and steel
Yves KleinUntitled Blue Sponge Sculpture (SE 322), c. 1961 Dry pigment and synthetic resin on natural sponge
Yves KleinIKB 240, c. 1955 Blue pigment and synthetic resin on linen mounted on panel
Yves KleinBlue Table, 1961 International Klein Blue pigment, glass, plexiglass and steel
Yves KleinSE 298, 1960 Pure pigment and synthetic resin, natural sponge on a metallic base
Related Press Yves Klein artworks electrify Blenheim Palace’s baroque interiors Wallpaper* : 23 July 2018 He’s a household name yet ‘most people do not know anything about Yves Klein’, says Daniel Moquay, director of the late French artist’s estate, and husband of Klein’s widow, Rotraut. Moquay has helped to coordinate an exhibition on Klein – who would have been 90 this year – taking place in the spectacular settings of Blenheim Palace.
Related Press An Ode to an Alley Modern Magazine : 5 January 2017 In Paris, a short, narrow alley in the fifteenth arrondissement known as Impasse Ronsin became a hub for some of the most prominent artists of the twentieth century, including Constantin Brancusi, Max Ernst, Yves Klein, Les Lalanne, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Jean Tinguely, among others. An exhibition, Impasse Ronsin, at the Paul Kasmin Gallery on...
Related Press The woman who painted her body for artist Yves Klein BBC : 23 October 2016 It has come to be seen as one of the landmark events in the history of performance art. The evening was conducted by French artist Yves Klein, who wore a black dinner jacket and white bow tie for the occasion, and who gave us a radically different type of nude in art. But there has been criticism of the way Klein used young women - dubbed...
Related Press At The Guggenheim, An Orb By Otto Piene Ascends Brooke Bobb for T Magazine Blogs / 4 November 2014 : 30 November 2014 The imposing rotunda inside the Guggenheim museum in New York has just become a lot more striking thanks to Otto Piene's "White Balloon" installation, on display for only three days. Specially installed to coincide with this year's Guggenheim International Gala, sponsored by Christian Dior, it dovetails with a longer exhibition: the first...
