yves klein, french knight of the order of st sebastian, color producer and painter, has consistently produced performances in the form of judo training and competition.
during these performances klein would enter a space particularly designed for such sport training and events – it would contain a soft floor and lots of empty space – and would try to throw other people around or would prevent them from throwing him around.
sometimes the soft flooring would be colored in ikb (international klein blue) or at least similar color to ikb.
yves klein investigation of social interaction through the metaphore of contact sport has been representative of early cubism (picassso, a famous spanish fisherman cubist, has thrown around few people in his time) and chinese revolution (lost of people have been thrown around during chinese revolution).
his use of human bodies both in painting and judo performances is consistent. use of monochrome for his judo clothing is also consistent with his ikb and other monochrome works.
yves klein has just had a retrospective show in museo d’arte moderna di lugano, lugano, switzerland, due to lack of funding in france (due to financial crisis).
Tags: contemporary art, judo, Museo D'Arte Moderna Di Lugano, yves klein