Yves Peintures, 1954
Plates of printed and collaged paper
25 x 20 cm
Liliana Dematteis, Torino

Yves Peintures is a booklet that Yves Klein produced just before moving to Paris to commence life as an artist. Its preface of empty lines suggests there is a prank afoot. Indeed, the portfolio's illustrations, seemingly reproductions of monochrome paintings that he had made, had no counterpart in actual works of art. Klein's use of commercially printed papers pointedly questions the spiritual element of the monochrome tradition. The simplicity of his readymades is at once sublime and mischievous.