International Klein Blue

For the Australian rock band named after this color, see Yves Klein Blue.

International Klein Blue
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#002FA7
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(0, 47, 167)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(223°, 100%, 65%)
Source		[Unsourced]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The International Klein Blue (IKB) is a deep blue hue first mixed by the French artist Yves Klein.

International Klein Blue (or IKB as it is known in art circles) was developed by French artist Yves Klein as part of his search for colors which best represented the concepts he wished to convey as an artist. Although Klein had worked with blue extensively in his earlier career, it was not until 1958 that he used it as the central component of a piece (the color effectively becoming the art). Klein embarked on a series of monochromatic works using IKB as the central theme. These included performance art where Klein painted models' naked bodies and had them walk, roll and sprawl upon blank canvases as well as more conventional single-color canvases.

IKB's visual impact comes from its heavy reliance on Ultramarine, as well as Klein's often thick and textured application of paint to canvas.

IKB was developed by Klein and chemists to have the same color brightness and intensity as dry pigments, which it achieves by suspending dry pigment in polyvinyl acetate, a synthetic resin marketed in France as Rhodopas M or M60A by the firm Rhône Poulenc.^[1]

While it is often said that the method for creating International Klein Blue was patented by the artist, this is not entirely true. Klein's patent had little to do with the chemical composition of the color, instead describing a method by which Klein was able to distance himself from the physical creation of his paintings by remotely directing models covered in the color.^[2]

International Klein Blue is outside the gamut of computer displays, and can therefore not be accurately portrayed on webpages.^{[citation needed]} However this photo of synthetic ultramarine pigment gives a fair impression of IKB as it appears in Klein's work.

v • d • e Shades of blue
Air Force blue	Alice blue	Azure	Baby blue	Bleu de France	Blue	Bondi blue	Brandeis blue	Cambridge Blue	Carolina blue
Ceil	Cerulean	Cobalt blue	Columbia blue	Cornflower blue	Cyan	Dark blue	Deep sky blue	Denim	Dodger blue
Duke blue	Egyptian blue	Electric blue	Eton blue	Federal Blue	Glaucous	Han blue	Iceberg	Indigo	International Klein Blue
Iris	Light blue	Majorelle Blue	Maya blue	Midnight blue	Navy blue	Non-photo blue	Palatinate blue	Periwinkle	Persian blue
Powder blue	Prussian blue	Royal blue	Sapphire	Sky blue	Steel blue	Teal	Tiffany Blue	Tufts Blue	UCLA Blue
Ultramarine	Yale Blue
The samples shown above are only indicative.

[edit] See also

• List of colors

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Yves Klein's "Klein Blue" painting at the Tate Gallery
• SFMOMA | Collections Access Online | Yves Klein | IKB74
• International-Klein-Blue.com
• Yves Klein's "Blue Monochrome" at NYMOMA

This color-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e