Yves Klein. Incandescence. [With DVD]

French painter Yves Klein (1928-1962) stands as one of the most exciting artists of the 20th century. A founding member of the New Realism movement, he was also a pioneer in performance art and installations, and a forerunner of body art, land art, and conceptual art. During his meteoric eight-year career, Klein expressed his vision through a wide range of media, including pure color (notably a deep, bright blue now known as Yves Klein Blue), architecture, sculpture, literature, and music. This book looks afresh at Klein's works, and especially those that involve fire. Klein used fire to represent the mysterious and intangible elements of the world: He believed that an artist's transfiguration of reality could change a viewer's personal values, and his aim was to usher in an age of happy and fulfilled humankind. Here, images of his spectacular mur de feu, or "wall of fire," along with monochromes, monogolds, drawings, letters, and articles, as well as pictures of him producing his works, are testament to Klein's belief in the spiritual power of art.