The high-end decorative paint company Ressource, now offers a color VERY close to the Yves Kelin’s International Klein Blue.
In cooperation with the artist’s estate, the company is marking what would have been Klein’s 90th birthday by releasing a paint (called Yves Klein®) inspired by the artist’s signature color. (Klein died at age 34)
Available in matte and velvet matte finishes, the paint sets (available at the company’s New York showroom) sell for $100 per liter. That’ll cover about 85 square feet. Expensive but It’s still a bargain compared to cost of Klein’s ArchispongeRe11, 1960, which sold at Sotheby’s in 2008 for $22 million.
In the mid-50s, Klein began making monochromatic paintings, applying layers and layers of paint to build up an even surface without no variation. This achieved what he called “the Unity.” After experimenting with a variety of colors, he focused just on blue.
Working with a paint supplier named Edouard Adam, who helped Klein develop a resin binder called polyvinyl acetate, Klein was able to capture the intense blue he was after. Adam still sells the pigment from his Montparnasse store.
(Photos, courtesy of Ressource; via Artnet News)