Yves Klein

Ulf Norinder, Switzerland
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1979 

Paul Wember, Yves Klein, Cologne 1969, p. 106, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the blue is slightly brighter and more vibrant and the paper has slightly more golden yellow tones in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There are a few media losses in places to the left leg, and two to the bottom edge of the right leg, visible in the catalogue illustration. The paper shows minor signs of ageing throughout and close inspection reveals a number of small, very faint and unobtrusive water marks at intervals across the sheet. There is a very minor, faint and unobtrusive diagonal rub mark towards the bottom left corner, and another towards the bottom right corner. There are some small areas of paper skinning towards the upper left edge, one small spot at the top right corner, another towards the bottom left corner and one very thin line at the centre of the bottom edge.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Executed on 7^th March 1960, Ant 59 immediately predates the legendary action-spectacle Anthropométries de l'époque bleue that Yves Klein orchestrated at the Galerie Internationale d'Art Contemporain on rue Saint-Honoré, Paris just two days later, and thus belongs to a pivotal moment in the artist's career. This was an iconic episode in the history of post-war and contemporary art and, as the event's direct prototype, Ant 59 materially attests the evolution of conceptual and performance art. Inscribed across the centre of the composition and partially obscured by the thick overlying pigment are the names 'Monique' and 'Marlene', two models that Klein used to make the Anthropométries. With these vestiges of Klein's inimitable working method Ant 59 enshrines a crucible of experimentation, documenting Klein's direction of his models' movements and placement as he daringly pioneered uncharted territory and brought together the worlds of performance and art.

Simultaneously positive and negative, concrete and immaterial, minimal and allusive, the image of the female nude leaps out from the bare paper, replete with spontaneity and vigour. The life-sized monochrome impression is edited by the edge of the canvas so as to focus on what Klein regarded as the 'essential mass' and to eliminate any suggestion of individuality. The sumptuous texture of Klein's signature International Klein Blue pigment on the raw paper demarcates a beautifully balanced composition of complimentary curves and ethereally impressed silhouettes through various gradations of built up paint material. Indeed, this shadow of the body nucleus records the primal energy and unadulterated physicality of Klein's working process. The figure, depersonalised and truncated, becomes an emblem for life itself.

The term Anthropométries was coined by the celebrated critic and Klein's friend Pierre Restany, and the series brings together a wide range of ideas long-developed by the artist. For Klein the IKB hue embodied his vision of the immaterial and the infinite and Ant 59 epitomises his attempt to free his work from the concrete world through the totality of colour. Here the artist also confronts the weighty western tradition of the female nude by using the figure to eliminate the figurative; capturing the essence of his models rather than their representation. "The shape of the body, its curves, its colours between life and death, are not of interest to me. It is the pure affective atmosphere that is valuable" (Yves Klein, 'Le Vrai Devient Réalité', cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Hayward Gallery, Yves Klein: Leap into the Void, 1995, p. 171). Indeed, the present work posits the body as a centre of physical, sensorial and spiritual energy, which also stemmed from the ethos of Klein's beloved martial art Judo. Both the practice of Judo and the creation of Ant 59 relate to the disciplined release of energy: Klein comparing both when describing the Ant works; "Hours of preparation for something that is executed, with extreme precision in a few minutes. Just as with a judo throw" (Yves Klein, Selected Writings, 1928-1962, London 1974, p. 47).

Ant 59 also implicitly illustrates how Klein replaced the artist's autonomous act of creation and the typecast of the artist-in-overalls with the role of a detached and distant director-producer by choreographing his models. This remote approach furthered his interrogation of themes such as authenticity, originality and agency in art. Finally, a poignant influence on Klein's work from this period was documentary imagery from Hiroshima of human outlines left in the contaminated earth there after the nuclear explosion. Klein had visited Japan in 1953 and seen the stone in Hiroshima marked with an inverted silhouette of a single man, the outline scorched into the rock by the atomic blast. This image remained imprinted on his memory, and the notions of void and moment fuse movingly in the outline and undulating depths of pigment in Ant 59.

When Klein conducted his infamous Anthropométries de l'époque bleue happening two days after creating Ant 59, he manoeuvred three pigment-covered models in front of an audience of gallery patrons and critics while his Monotone Symphony (one twenty-minute note followed by twenty minutes of silence) was performed in the background. He was impeccably dressed, wearing white tie and the Cross of the Order of the Archers of Saint Sebastian, which he had joined in 1956 with the motto "For colour! Against the line and drawing!" The spectacle not only caused an immediate sensation and accelerated Klein's ecstatic innovation, but also marked a new era for conceptual and performance art, which proliferated so extensively in the decades after his early death. The direct precursor to all of this, Ant 59 is an historical work of exceptional significance that re-classifies the human body not only as an apparatus of life, but also as a force of creativity with serene beauty and brilliant innovation.