Iris Clert Gallery
According to Clert, the one-color painting caused quite a stir in the neighborhood: art students made jokes, the elderly seemed confused – everyone was talking about it.
[1] Opening night included releasing 1,001 blue balloons into the sky, as a symbolic gesture by Klein which he called "aerostatic sculpture."
Recently my work with color has led me, in spite of myself, to search little by little, with some assistance (from the observer, from the translator), for the realization of matter, and I have decided to end the battle.
The Void, on the other hand, was inherently a public act, meant as an event for the larger populous to absorb and participate in.
This demonstration of perceptive synthesis sanctions the pictorial quest of Yves Klein for an ecstatic and immediately communicable emotion.
Art critic Jean Grenier wrote that le Vide represented "the numerous magic and incalculable powers given in a single color."
Pure Speed was a reasonable success, and this friendship would continue to strengthen until Klein's death as the two would develop their artistry, often in tandem with one another.
After the extravaganza of le Vide eventually subsided, Klein's new found celebrity allowed him artistic endeavors based on commission, including the collaborative design, construction, and decoration of the Gelsenkirchen Opera House in West Germany.
Klein seemed to have moved beyond the cramped confines of the Galerie Iris Clert: the small gallery could only house the plans of the project.
These plans were given the lengthy title of La Collaboration Internationale entre Artistes et Architectes dans la realization du Nouvel Opéra et theater de Gelsenkirchen (International Collaboration between Artists and Architects in the realization of the New Opera and theater of Gelsenkirchen), and acted as a sort of avant-garde press release for the new opera house.
Klein was disappointed with the results of his monochrome sculptures, however, mostly because of the means of aerostatic suspension, small sticks coming from a weighty base, which seemed entirely unsatisfactory to him.
After La forêt d'ésponges monochromes, Klein began to investigate alternative means to this unassisted suspension, the most promising of which consisted of hydrogen balloons inserted into the center of his sponges.
Klein was all too aware of Clert's friendship with Takis, an artist pursuing similar means of aerostatic suspension and levitation.
Invitations to the exhibition were sent in small sardine cans, with the words "Arman – Le Plein – Iris Clert" printed simply on the pull-away top.
Arman's portrait consisted of a wall-mounted box filled with various affects taken from Clert's daily life: a high-heel shoe, a personal photograph, lipstick, and various bits of other rubbish.
There was a greater interactivity between curator, artist, and viewer, a critical collaboration of personalities, ideas, and aesthetics.
Arman noted that Clert "introduced modern techniques for the presentation of art, into a business that was previously more like antique dealing.
This was partly due to the size of the gallery itself: the one small room could physically house only a single concept at a time.
