Best Of 2024: The Man Who Sold The Wind

Today In History with The Retrospectors

Happy New Year, Retrospectors! We’ll return with new episodes from Monday 6th January, but in the meantime the team have been choosing their favourite episodes from 2024 that are worthy of a second listen. First up, Arion has selected our conversation about “Zone de Sensibilité Picturale Immatérielle”, the artwork concluded by French artist Yves Klein on 26th January 1962 – when he threw half the gold he received for the artwork into the Seine, and burned the ownership receipt. This conceptual performance, forgotten for decades, is now often credited by art critics for presaging the world of NFTs and blockchains.

Known for his daring, influential art, Klein’s more famous works include orchestrating a monotone silence symphony and copyrighting a colour: International Klein Blue. Despite satirising capitalism, however, he always made sure he was well paid…

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Klein’s methods aimed for spontaneous, chaotic, and absurd expressions of art; explain how the audience were always a crucial component in his performances; and question whether Farrow and Ball have the edge over his trademark colour…

Further Reading:

• ‘Money for nothing: receipt for ‘invisible art’ sells for $1.2m’ (The Guardian, 2022): https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/apr/14/receipt-for-invisible-art-auction-yves-klein

• ‘Yves Klein: The man who invented a colour’ (BBC Culture, 2014): https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140828-the-man-who-invented-a-colour

• What Inspired Yves Klein? (Christie’s, 2018):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX3GrC6legQ

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