Yves Klein Bleu - the colour and the artist

From the Tate -
In 1947, Klein began making monochrome paintings, which he associated with freedom from ideas of representation or personal expression. A decade later, he developed his trademark, patented colour, International Klein Blue (IKB). This colour, he believed, had a quality close to pure space, and he associated it with immaterial values beyond what can be seen or touched. He described it as ‘a Blue in itself, disengaged from all functional justification’. Klein made around 200 monochrome paintings using IKB. He did not give titles to these works but, after his death, his widow assigned a number to each one.

From MOMA -
Monochrome abstraction—the use of one color over an entire canvas—has been a strategy adopted by many painters wishing to challenge expectations of what an image can and should represent. Klein likened monochrome painting to an "open window to freedom." He worked with a chemist to develop his own particular brand of blue. Made from pure color pigment and a binding medium, it is called International Klein Blue. Klein adopted this hue as a means of evoking the immateriality and boundlessness of his own particular utopian vision of the world.

"Yves le monochrome," as Klein called himself, saw the monochrome painting as an "open window to freedom, as the possibility of being immersed in the immeasurable existence of color." Although he used a range of colors before concentrating on three—blue, gold, and a red he called Monopink—he is most associated with a blue he named International Klein Blue, which he arrived at by working with a chemist to develop a binding medium that could absorb pure color pigment without dimming its brilliant intensity. A student of Rosicrucianism and of Eastern religions, Klein entertained esoteric and spiritual ideas in which blue played a vital role as the color of infinity. Keenly aware that pigment is a substance of the earth, Klein also devised methods to make paintings using the other three elements—air (in the form of wind), water (in the form of rain), and fire.
Kazimir Malevich's Suprematist Composition: White on White (1918) is the major historical precedent for recent monochrome, but Klein argued that the Russian artist's primary concern had been with form—the square—rather than with color. As a result, Klein felt that "Malevich was actually standing before the infinite—I am in it."

For more about the colour IKB - see below link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Klein_Blue

Yves Klein Bleu - the band

Yves Klein Blue, the Brissie band (rockin' music), has the coolest website - http://www.yveskleinblue.com/.

This is what the band have to say about themselves -

"Yves Klein Blue are named after artist Yves Klein's famous IKB, a blue paint that does not lose its brilliance over time, forever appearing wet and freshly applied. The name is a metaphor for the bands aspiration to create music that will never fade with age.
Yves Klein Blue's clashy blend of classic pop, old punk, gypsy jazzand indie rock is a mixed palate. From the 4/4 tones of catchy lead single Polka to the fuzzy punk stylings of Silence Is Distance and tojaunty pop fuzz of Blasphemy, debut 5 track EP, Yves Klein Blue Draw Attention To Themselves shows their wealth of influences – from Bowie and Lou Reed to Nirvana, The Clash and The Beatles without adhering to or regurgitating any particular genre.
Born from a mutual love of Led Zeppelin forged in high school, as frontman Michael Tomlinson and guitarist Charles Sale escaped to the dusty confines of the school instrument storeroom, skipping PE and jamming at lunchtime. Bedroom jams bore the fruit of the beginnings of EP tracks, now fully formed with the addition of bassist Sean Cook and drummer Chris Banham.
With such an artistic name, it's no wonder the band is artistic in nature. Songwriter Michael is a very visual person, sometimes arranging songs by the unique method of drawing pictures to help see what a song will sound like. A crescendo may build to be a swirlinline, a certain strumming in jagged lines or a vocal coming in waves. The EP artwork takes this method of building songs and spreads it across large canvases.
Yves Klein Blue Draw Attention to Themselves was recorded in Brisbane and Byron Bay with Caleb James (Rhubarb) at the helm. It was mixed by Wayne Connolly (You Am I, The Vines, Josh Pyke). Yves Klein Blue signed with Dew Process, home of Sarah Blasko, The Grates, The Panics, Expatriate, Bernard Fanning, The Living End, Whitley and many more in late 2007. It was a great fit for the Brisbane based band, who now treat the Dew Process office as their second home."

Also - for more about the band, see its entry on WIKIPEDIA -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein_Blue

A handbag for Denise - "Yves Klein Bleu" Chanel Patent Python

A note from the blog "I can't wait to vote!" -

"I just heard back from the Director of the Chanel boutique, this is REAL python skin. Not embossed leather. I know many of you are speculating the authenticity of the skin, don’t worry! It’s the real deal!
17cmx11cm $2,495 at Chanel
Still can’t find the ultimate summer blue bag? The House of Chanel goes mod with a classic French shade, Yves Klein Bleu, in a patent python classic chain bag. Yves Klein is the French artist who developed this shade of deep electric blue in 1958, and it has been known as International Klein Blue (IKB) in the art circle ever since. Serious Chanel collectors are going to go nuts when they see this. Most boutiques do not have it yet, so you can still get on the list. I had sworn off all classic flap bags and 2.55 bags, but this one is giving me serious heart palpitations. I love the shape, too. I have always wished for a wider bottom for my 2.55s, and it seems the Chanel angels heard my prayers. The one above is tiny (17cm wide, a mere 6.6 inches), there is a bigger one at $2,695 20cmx12cm (7.8 inches wide) but still smaller than what I’d like. However, the color is to die and the price is not too ridiculous for a Chanel exotic and it’s a fabulous collector’s item. At Chanel boutiques this summer."

Booker Prize clutch!

Linda Grant (The Thoughtful Dresser) accessorised with a white Anya Hindmarch (never heard of her) Pipkin clutch when she attended the Booker Prize awards. Apparently, she has a gold clutch from the same range 'on order'. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the link - oh my God - the clutch is GORGEOUS in the metallic (it is made of snake skin, I think).....but the price KILLED ME - 850 EURO!! D

More links

I have added links for - Huffington Post (American politics), The Booker Prize and the Pulitzer Prize.

More about The Thoughtful Dresser

I hate Linda Grant. Her life is one of the 'figs' on Sylvia Plath's fig tree - although the fig was hanging on a tree in someone else's orchard! I have just read her blog and it seems that notwithstanding holidays in Mexico and accepting prizes from Tom Stoppard, Grant still has plenty of time to post blogs on the First Lady's inauguration day dress (including sourcing and quoting other people's comments on the outfit), Aretha Franklin's hat and make quirky clever little comments about Mickey Rourke's Golden Globe attire (complete with links to definitions in Wikkipaedia!). By the way, she also has time to compile a new book called....'The Thoughtful Dresser', on the back of the success of her blog. I hope she has an army of assistants. She makes me feel completely inadequate because I can hardly get my bed made in the mornings. On the other hand, I am completely blissed out when I spend about an hour at the end of each day, quietly watering the garden (using tank water!) while Bill runs around picking flowers and climbing over the rocks and Kingsley swings gently on the patio in one of his little rocking chairs. Being an eloquent fashionista, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, will have to wait for another life time. By the way, I love Grant's blog and agree that Michelle's outfit was a bit matronly. I haven't seen her ball dress yet but I bet Michelle and Barack looked chic when they danced the presidential waltz at each of the ten balls!

Four books in four days!

Whilst marooned in Fiji, cowering in my bure with cyclonic winds threatening to blow the thatch roof off, I managed to read four books in four days. I don't think that I have read four books in four days since my student days (usually during swot vac, trying to avoid study!). I finally read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and am particularly sad that I missed this book club. I would have liked to have heard what you all had to say about it. Some bits of it particularly resonated with me - eg the metaphor about the fig tree. How I wish that I had at least nine lives! What a shame that Plath only wrote the one novel and that her demons haunted her to her death. I also read White Tiger by an indian author (? - won last year's Booker Prize - loved it!), Ian Townsend's The Devil's Eye (not a patch on Affection - looks like he wrote it in a hurry after doing some terrific research on the pearling industry off the Cape in the late 1800s and life at TI and in Cooktown around this time....he seems to have picked up all sorts of grants to write the book and I couldn't help thinking how much fun it would be to get paid to spend time in the library doing research about some interesting aspect of Australian history) and Life, Death and Marriages by Georgia Blain. Denise gave me this book to read a while ago. It is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. Blain's mother was Anne Devison (spelling?) and her father was also a radio journalist. Her eldest brother had mental health problems and died when he was in his early 20s. The book is simply about her life and what is was like living with her family - and Georgia Blain writes the way that I wish that I could. Russell read it after me and I was surprised at how much he enjoyed the book (he also commented on how well she writes). Oh - also just finished One Fifth Avenue by Candice Bushnell, who wrote Sex in the City. Despite its trash value (I couldn't put it down once I started.....and even dreamt about the characters!), Bushnell has an amazing ability to write about what we sometimes think but wouldn't dare say or act out. I think that she is brilliant! Perfect beach read. Rusty read the Edgar Sawtell book that I put on the holiday reading list and said that it was crap!