Lotto 3664 - A211 Stampe e multipli - giovedì, 28. novembre 2024, 14h00
YVES KLEIN
(Nizza 1928–1962 Paris)
Table IKB. 1963.
International Klein Blue pigment, glass, acrylic glass and chrome steel. From an unknown edition. With the signed and numbered label of authenticity on the underside: R. Klein-Moquay Serial number: 10 NE-ITT.
36 × 125 × 100 cm.
36 × 125 × 100 cm.
Provenance:
- Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich.
- Private collection, Switzerland, acquired in the above gallery in 2013.
"Nel blu, dipinto di blu" - whether Domenico Modugno saw Yves Klein's exhibition at Milan's Galleria Apollinaire in January 1957 and the eleven monochromes he showed there before singing about flying through the endless, painted blue at the San Remo Festival in 1958, that remains a mystery. Looking at Yves Klein's monochrome blue works, drenched in IKB, the International Klein Blue developed by the artist himself, we find ourselves in that very state: thanks to the skilful application of paint and Klein's ingenious new binding agent, the ultramarine pigment remains powdery and with an enormous depth of colour on the picture surface, creating a vertiginous quality that seems to draw the viewer into the blueness. The side table "Table IKB" (lot 3721) produces a very similar effect. This is a limited-edition piece based on one of the two originals from 1961, still designed by Yves Klein himself, and produced in small quantities every year since 1963 under the patronage of the Yves Klein archives and under the direction of Klein's widow Rotraut Klein-Moquay. The side table is available in three versions: IKB, Monopink and Monogold. In the IKB and Monopink versions (lot 3722), the pigment appears to sit, powdery and loose, in the flat box made of glass and Plexiglas that serves as the table top. The vertiginous effect, typical of Yves Klein's works, also comes about when looking into these colourful depths, while the eye scans the surface of the pigment from close up, as if in search of geographical landmarks. The Monogold variant (lot 3723) has its own special and additional charm: inside the glass box, it is as if gravity has been suspended and the light flickers amidst the most delicate gold leaf, some of which appears to have been caught in a state of weightlessness. The rare coming together of all three versions of the side table allows us to establish links to Klein's earlier works: in 1961, the year he produced the "Ex-Voto in honour of Saint Rita of Cascia" he had already created the first two tables and had already combined the two pigments and the gold leaf in a similar Plexiglas construction, which may then have laid the foundation for the Ex-Voto. In Table IKB, Monopink and Monogold, art is combined with design, museum space with private space, and exclusivity with the everyday. As unusual multiples with their very own history, these three side tables would enrich any modern furnishing concept, both individually or in this very rare opportunity of all three variants together.
CHF 7 000 / 10 000 | (€ 7 220 / 10 310)