© 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris

Large Blue Anthropometry (ANT105)

1960

Yves Klein

Oil on canvas

280 × 428cm

Collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA

In his Anthropométries series, Yves Klein used renowned nude female models as “brushes,” completely covered in paint. His method of pressing the body onto paper support (later mounted on canvas) abandons any illusion of three-dimensional space within the realm of painting. In these works, the subject, object, and medium intermingle, leaving traces of bodily existence. The female body is reduced to the dimension of a torso as if measuring the human form. For Klein, these imprints represent the most concentrated manifestation of life energy, a trace left by a healthy life’s trajectory.