Digital Editions
Newsletters
Subscribe
Digital Editions
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Exhibitions
news

From royal blue to Yves Klein blue: Blenheim Palace to host show of Modern master

Body paintings and sponge sculptures in artist’s signature ultramarine blue will fill rooms of stately home this summer

Gareth Harris
25 April 2018
Share
Yves Klein during the shooting The Heartbeat of France, a documentary by Peter Morley Photo : Charles Wilp / BPK, Berlin

Yves Klein during the shooting The Heartbeat of France, a documentary by Peter Morley Photo : Charles Wilp / BPK, Berlin

More than 50 works by Yves Klein will go on show in the grandiose surroundings of Blenheim Palace, the 18th-century stately home located in Oxfordshire, this summer. The exhibition, Yves Klein at Blenheim Palace (18 July-7 October), is billed as the most comprehensive exhibition of the late French conceptual artist’s work to be held in the UK.

The show, organised in collaboration with the Paris-based Yves Klein Estate, will include Klein’s Anthropometry body paintings. To make these works, the artist used naked models who acted as “human paintbrushes”, daubing marks on large-scale canvases. Klein would instruct the women who were covered in International Klein Blue, a colour he patented, as they moved around on the canvases and imprinted their bodies.

Klein, who died in 1962, also applied the ultramarine International Klein Blue pigment to sponges that he attached to canvases or fixed on wire stands, creating anthropomorphic sculptures. Some of these sculptures will form an integral part of the Blenheim Palace display, along with Klein’s Monochrome paintings, which will be shown in the principal rooms of the residence including the Great Hall. Fire Paintings, created by the artist with a blowtorch in the late 1950s, will also feature.

Blenheim Palace has previously hosted exhibitions by contemporary artists such as Jenny Holzer and Ai Weiwei Blenheim Palace; Photo: Pete Seaward

‘Yves Klein was one of the most radical and influential artists of the 20th century, and yet to date, his work has not been extensively shown in the UK. Klein altered how Modern art was perceived, by reinventing the idea of the old and combining it with the new," says Michael Frahm, the director of the Blenheim Art Foundation. "We are delighted to be collaborating with the Estate on this exhibition in what would have been the artist's 90th birthday year."

The Klein show is the fifth contemporary art exhibition to be held at the palace; previous exhibitions were dedicated to Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jenny Holzer, Ai Weiwei and Lawrence Weiner.

ExhibitionsArtistsYves KleinBlenheim Palace
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Instagram
Bluesky
LinkedIn
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
© The Art Newspaper

Related content

Exhibitionsnews
16 January 2020

Cecily Brown will fill grand birthplace of Winston Churchill with images of broken Britain

UK artist says exhibition at Blenheim Palace is a timely opportunity to examine the country's current tumult

Gareth Harris
Commissionsnews
18 January 2024

Iraqi artist Mohammed Sami, witness to war, to take over Blenheim Palace

Goldsmiths graduate will draw inspiration from the 18th-century UK stately home

Gareth Harris