Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Plates
- Introduction
- 1 What is art? Yves Klein's: Anthropometries
- 2 The value of art: Lucian Freud's Hotel Bedroom
- 3 Expression: Mark Rothko's: Black on Maroon
- 4 Forgeries, copies and variations: Gerhard Richter's Dead 2
- 5 Intention and interpretation: Louise Bourgeois's: Maman
- 6 Beauty and ugliness: Francis Bacon's Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion
- 7 Art and knowledge: Edward Hopper's Nighthawks
- 8 Art and morality: Balthus's: Thérèse Dreaming
- Further reading
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
1 - What is art? Yves Klein's: Anthropometries
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Plates
- Introduction
- 1 What is art? Yves Klein's: Anthropometries
- 2 The value of art: Lucian Freud's Hotel Bedroom
- 3 Expression: Mark Rothko's: Black on Maroon
- 4 Forgeries, copies and variations: Gerhard Richter's Dead 2
- 5 Intention and interpretation: Louise Bourgeois's: Maman
- 6 Beauty and ugliness: Francis Bacon's Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion
- 7 Art and knowledge: Edward Hopper's Nighthawks
- 8 Art and morality: Balthus's: Thérèse Dreaming
- Further reading
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
On a clear night in March [1960] at ten pm sharp a crowd of one hundred people, all dressed in black tie attire, came to the Galerie International d'Art Contemporain in Paris. The event was the first conceptual piece to be shown at this gallery by their new artist Mr. Yves Klein. The gallery was one of the finest in Paris.
Mr. Klein in a black dinner jacket proceeded to conduct a ten piece orchestra in his personal composition of The Monotone Symphony, which he had written in 1949. This symphony consisted of one note.
Three models appeared, all with very beautiful naked bodies. They were then conducted as was the full orchestra by Mr. Klein. The music began. The models then rolled themselves in the blue paint that had been placed on giant pieces of artist paper – the paper had been carefully placed on one side of the gallery's wall and floor area – opposite the full orchestra. Everything was composed so breathtakingly beautifully. The spectacle was surely a metaphysical and spiritual event for all. This went on for twenty minutes. When the symphony stopped it was followed by a strict twenty minutes of silence, in which everyone in the room willingly froze themselves in their own private meditation space.
At the end of Yves' piece everyone in the audience was fully aware they had been in the presence of a genius at work, the piece was a huge success! Mr. Klein triumphed. It would be his greatest moment in art history, a total success.
(Lewis 1960)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Introducing Philosophy of ArtIn Eight Case Studies, pp. 11 - 30Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2012