Y Y for Yves
by Barbara Könches
“When my text refers to the artist Yves Klein, he is usually just called “Yves.” This can be explained not only by the author’s friendship with the artist, but also because in Klein’s view his first name was sufficient designation. He wanted it that way, and everyone called him Yves.”[i]
[i] Paul Wember, Yves Klein: Werkverzeichnis. Biographie. Bibliographie. Ausstellungsverzeichnis, arranged by Gisela Fiedler (Cologne, 1969), p. 7.
Thus wrote Paul Wember (1913–1987), “director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld” and “on friendly terms with Klein from 1957 until his death in 1962,” in his foreword to the first Yves Klein catalogue raisonné, published by M. DuMont Schauberg in Cologne in 1969. The publication was instigated by Rotraut Klein (b. 1938), who—Wember emphasizes—over the course of six years had contributed significantly to compiling the “overview of his [Klein’s] oeuvre.”[i]
Wember was the first and only museum director during Yves’s lifetime (1928–1962) to organize a solo exhibition of his work in a German museum, in 1961. This was a very courageous act at the time, as Yves Klein—the person and his art—was highly controversial for many years, something that today is difficult to imagine.
[i] Ibid.
In the prestigious German weekly Die Zeit, Jürgen Claus (1935–2023), himself an artist and art theorist, published a review of Wember’s catalogue raisonné, which was a very lavish production—anyone wishing to purchase it had to shell out the then princely sum of 180 Deutschmarks. “I would like to recommend the book to my friends,” Claus wrote regretfully, “but unfortunately none of my friends can afford to buy it.”[i]Nevertheless, the expensive price tag did not cloud the critic’s view; on the contrary, he announced at the beginning of his piece that he had “no intention of adding a further hatchet job to the two scathing reviews on Yves Klein that have already appeared in Die Zeit.”[ii] Rather, Jürgen Claus weighed up Klein’s merits and summed up with a Solomonic judgment: “If one accepts that the function of art is now expanding, then I think that one can at least accept the Frenchman’s mystical, speculative undertone, even if one does not approve of it. If you leave it aside, there are still more than enough challenges, images, thoughts, sculptures, and sketches that you can stick to.”[iii]
[i] Jürgen Claus, “Herausforderung des Yves Klein: Eine erste Monographie über den umstrittenen französischen Künstler,” Die Zeit 25, June 20, 1969, https://www.zeit.de/1969/25/
herausforderung-des-yves-klein (accessed March 2, 2024).
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Ibid.
The first “hatchet job” in the very same weekly newspaper appeared on August 17, 1962, not long after Yves’s death on June 6, 1962, with the headline “The First Master Who Fell from the Sky,”[i] and the author was Klaus Jürgen-Fischer (1930–2017), of all people. Fischer was not only an artist himself and the art editor of his father’s publishing house,[ii] but was also the person who had given the opening speech at the 7th Evening Exhibition, Das rote Bild (The Red Painting),[iii] at the Gladbacher Strasse 69 atelier, which had been so decisive for ZERO art. And although not quite as prominent as Yves Klein, “Klaus J. Fischer,” as he styled himself in the magazine ZERO 1, which accompanied the exhibition, nevertheless featured in the publication with a response to the question “Quo vadis, color?”[iv]
Jürgen Claus used the term “hatchet job” intentionally, because Klaus Jürgen-Fischer’s text was and remains personally insulting, a far cry from a critical appraisal, and in fact so defamatory that to this day no one wants to quote it anywhere.
[i] Klaus Jürgen-Fischer, “Der erste Meister, der vom Himmel fiel,” Die Zeit, no. 33, August 17, 1962, https://www.zeit.de/1962/33/ der-erste-meister-der-vom-himmel-fiel (accessed March 2, 2024).
[ii] He worked at the art magazine Das Kunstwerk, published by Agis Verlag in Baden-Baden.
[iii] An excerpt of the opening lecture for the 7th Evening Exhibition was published: Klaus Jürgen-Fischer, “Der Kunstler—die Mittel—der Inhalt,” in Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, eds., ZERO 2 (Düsseldorf, 1958), n.p. This text was not included in the English reprint. See Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, eds., ZERO, trans. Howard Beckman (Cambridge, MA, 1973).
[iv] See ZERO 1, eds. Otto Piene and Heinz Mack (Düsseldorf, 1958), n.p. In the English reprint, this page, with answers by Ruprecht Geiger, Klaus J. Fischer, Hermann Bartels, K.F. Dahmen and Jürgen v. Hündeberg has been omitted. See Mack and Piene 1973 (see note 8).
How much more hurtful must the words have seemed to a friend?
Otto Piene (1928–2014) was such a friend, and not only that, but he immediately decided to take action against the scurrilous article. On the very same day, Piene typed a letter “To the editors of Die Zeit, Hamburg Pressehaus”:
“With my knowledge of Yves Klein—as a person and as an artist—I can assure you that the statements in your newspaper are malicious, untrue, and immoral.”[i] Piene went on to state that Jürgen-Fischer had “repeatedly sought to vilify Yves Klein during his lifetime.” “The fact that you [the Zeit editorial team, or Rudolf Walter Leonhardt, as head of the arts section] give the bad-mouthing Jürgen-Fischer the opportunity to do so is completely incomprehensible to me and shows, to put it mildly, a lack of tact.”
[i] Otto Piene to Die Zeit (R. W. Leonhardt), Düsseldorf, August 17, 1962, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, mkp.ZERO.2.I.1359.
Simply complaining would not have been enough—Piene wanted justice for his deceased friend. He asks that he or someone else be given the opportunity to “follow up with a positive tribute to Klein.… In the interests of intellectual decency … I would keep it completely non-polemical and not go into the Fischer article, because it would be a disservice to the deceased to indulge in public wrangling.”
A letter came back immediately from the feuilleton editorial department of Die Zeit. Dr. Leonhardt (1921–2003) thanked Piene for his open statement and passed on to him an anonymous letter. Since “[the writer] was too cowardly to give his name,” Piene would probably have to discuss the matter “with Mr. Jürgen-Fischer himself.”[i] And Leonhardt hastened to add: “Incidentally, his article is entirely in line with the Zeit editorial team’s opinions.”[ii]
Less than two days later Otto Piene wrote another letter to “Dr. Leonhardt” and sent him back the letter from the “smart ass from Trier.” He then told the feature editor what he and his friends, “some of whom were also friends of Yves Klein,” were concerned about:
[i] R. W. Leonhardt to Otto Piene, Hamburg, August 20, 1962, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, mkp.ZERO.2.I.1360.
[ii] Ibid.
“Yves Klein has been derided in a very unfair way by your ‘German Weekly’ and cannot defend himself. Please do him justice by following up the denigration with a tribute.”[i]
[i] Otto Piene to R. W. Leonhardt, Düsseldorf, August 22, 1962, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, mkp.ZERO.2.I.1361.
Despite Piene’s best efforts, the Hamburg editorial team refrained from publishing a second opinion on the artist who called himself Yves.
Yves Klein did come in for a lot of criticism, as Paul Wember does not neglect to address in the chapter “Judgments and Encounters,” in his monograph on Klein’s work.[i] “Apart from the bad reviews, distortions, disparagements, and misunderstandings, Yves had many genuine friends among artists, critics, and art enthusiasts, who appreciated him, were delighted with his work, and genuinely admired his actions,” writes Wember, before going on to list numerous friends by name, including Norbert Kricke (1922–1984), who was “the first German artist to see the significance of Yves in Paris correctly.”[ii] For “the many German artists who were friends with him early on,… especially for the ZERO group, for Mack, Piene, and Uecker,” Yves was a kind of stimulus and an inspiration. In many conversations and reminiscences, all three—Mack, Piene, and Uecker—both during the ZERO period and later, frequently emphasized the importance of Yves Klein and their own deep friendships with him. And, last but not least, the prominent role assigned to Yves Klein in the ZERO 1 and ZERO 3[iii] magazines testifies to the esteem, respect, and friendship between Heinz, Otto, Günther, and Yves.
[i] Wember 1969 (see note 1), p. 54.
[ii] Ibid., p. 57.
[iii] The fact that Yves Klein gave Otto Piene precise instructions on how to scorch the pages in ZERO 3 in a six-page handwritten letter also testifies to this trust: “Please Piene make it in a lovely way—I know it is maybe a delicate WORK—but do it—I am sure you will not let me down with this.” Archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, mkp.ZERO.2.I.2095, pp. 3–4. Apparently Piene must have done everything right, because there is no further letter about this matter. Also, Yves Klein does not seem to have been bothered by the fact that Anthropometry no. 113, listed as ANT 113, titled Ant 113 by Wember, appears in ZERO 3 under the title “Yves Klein Le Monochrome. Vers l’Anthropophagie universelle,” and is shown the wrong way round.
This text has been translated from German into English by Gloria Custance.
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