Blue Monochrome

Mediums: dry pigment in synthetic polymer medium on cotton over plywood.
Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York (the USA).

From 1955 until his early death in 1962, Yves Klein completed 194 monochromes. These are paintings locally painted in the same colour. This technique raised doubts about what the content of the work is if it is devoid of line, image, or any meaning. Klein compared monochrome painting with an “open window to freedom”. The literal depiction of the colour itself as his identity was Klein’s way of discovering the art of “advanced opportunities” and speaking with laid-back simplicity as an antidote to the then prevailing style of abstract expressionism.