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Yves Klein

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Artist

The Resume

    (April 28, 1928-June 6, 1962)
    Born in Nice, France
    Painter and performance artist
    Member of the nouveau realisme (new realism) movement
    Best-known for his series of monochromatic blue paintings

Why he might be annoying:

    He composed a ‘Monotone Symphony’ consisting of a sustained 20-minute chord, followed by 20 minutes of silence (1948).
    He staged a gallery showing titled ‘The Void’ consisting of an empty cabinet in an otherwise empty room. (‘My paintings are now invisible.’)
    He would create artworks by painting the bodies of naked women, then having them roll about on canvases.
    One of these events was featured in the pioneering shockumentary ‘Mondo Cane.’
    He suffered a heart attack while watching ‘Mondo Cane’ at the Cannes Film Festival (May 11, 1962), followed by two more, with the second one being fatal.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He took up judo before establishing himself as an artist and was the first European to rise to the rank of yodan (4th degree blackbelt).
    He collaborated with a chemist to create a particular shade of deep blue, trademarked as International Klein Blue.
    He influenced minimalism and pop art.
    New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl called him ‘the last French artist of major international consequence.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 53.85% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 8 Votes: 100% Annoying