Yves Klein exhibition at Blenheim Palace to present the visionary artist's work "from a new angle"

A major exhibition of French artist Yves Klein’s work is to go on display at Blenheim Palace from 18 July – 7 October. The show will mark what would have been the visionary French artist’s 90th birthday and will explore concepts of “beauty, sensibility and the sublime”.

Klein is considered one of the most important figures in post-war European art, combining traditional artistic mediums with innovative techniques. His imaginative creative approach influenced movements in conceptual art, minimalism and performance art; his Anthropometry series, which will be on display at Yves Klein at Blenheim Palace, saw Klein employ models as “living brushes” to create marks on the canvases in front of a live audience, breaking down the boundaries between artistic process and finished product.

Yves Klein at Blenheim Palace will feature a total of 50 artworks including painting, sculpture and large-scale installation. Visitors can expect to see Klein’s large-scale Monochrome Paintings, which were decisive in the artist’s fascination with and focus on the colour blue. Klein is perhaps most famous for developing his own vivid, ultramarine pigment, International Klein Blue, which became a symbol of reaching the ‘infinite’ or the ‘sublime’ through pure colour.

The exhibition is hosted by the Blenheim Art Foundation, which aims to inspire visitors of Blenheim Palace with modern and contemporary art inside the 18th-century building, and will mark the institution’s 5th anniversary.

Daniel Moquay of Yves Klein Archives said in a statement: “We are very happy to collaborate with Blenheim Art Foundation on the occasion of Yves Klein’s 90th birthday year and to present his artworks in a totally different environment from the usual exhibitions that we organise. This exhibition will present Yves Klein’s artworks from a new angle and bring contemporary and neo-classical art into unprecedented dialogue, as a fluid tradition.”