Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1484758
(Continued from page 38) ROBERTO MAROSSI Y ves Klein (1928 – 1962) was a provocative conceptualist — both an avowed minimalist who once staged a show in an empty room and called it "The Void" and an early proponent of the most avant-garde, brow-raising performance art, which contemporary artists still embrace as example. This year signals the 60th anniversary of Klein's passing — an event marked by an important new international design collaboration. French design house Pierre Frey collaborates with the Yves Klein Archives to produce two collections: Les Anthropométries and Les Peintures de Feu, which are deployed throughout a series of wallpaper and carpet designs. The wallpapers, Ant 82 and Ant 125, bear striking cerulean International Klein Blue (IKB) figuration from the artist's iconic circa-1960 performances, where naked models became paintbrushes, loaded up with blue pigment and smeared across the awaiting canvas to compose a painting emboldened by action. Beyond the swaths of blue nudes, which also make it onto an Ant 125 carpet, a series of Fire Paintings in varying shades of blue, pink, and gold, comprises the rug collection. Spun from wool and silk, these textiles offer a nod to the artist's exploration of the properties of fire upon cardboard sprayed with water, a series he began in 1961 in the test center of France's national gas company in La Plaine Saint- Denis. Yves Klein X Pierre Frey, to the trade at Culp Associates, Dallas Design Center, 1025 N. Stemmons Freeway. Clockwise from top: Yves Klein X Pierre Frey Ant 125 wallpaper. Yves Klein X Pierre Frey Ant 82 wallpaper. The artist with his work Grande Anthropophagie bleue – Hommage à Tennessee Williams (Ant 76) at the Galerie Rive Droite, Paris, 1960. Yves Klein X Pierre Frey Ant 125 rug. © REBECKA OFTEDAL SYLVIE BECQUET © REBECKA OFTEDAL. ARTIST PORTRAIT ON RIGHT © THE ESTATE OF YVES KLEIN C/O ADAGP PARIS, 2019 /VEGAP MADRID, 2019. © PHOTO PIERRE DESCARGUES. 39