Yves Klein: the man famous for trademarking his own shade of blue

Tate Liverpool has opened the UK’s first solo museum show in 20 years dedicated to French artist Yves Klein. One of the most influential figures in post-war art, Klein is best known for registering a trademark on a particular shade of ultramarine blue, self-penned as International Klein Blue.

The exhibition presents around 30 major works including sculpture, performance, music, film, architecture and just some of the 200 paintings Klein created using his own blue pigment, as well as other paintings from his Anthropometry and Fire Paintings series. It shows just how prolific the artist was in his short life, dying aged 34.

“Klein breathed life into art following the second world war and laid the foundations for many subsequent movements including pop and performance art,” says the exhibition’s curator Darren Pih. “During his short but intense career, he produced over 200 International Klein Blue paintings which expressed absolute freedom and infinite space, free from representation and materiality. They are portals into the unknown.”

Yves Klein is on at Tate Liverpool until 5 March 2017.