Yves Klein Works Selling, Exhibit Coming

Yves Klein is getting his first solo exhibition in the U.S. since 1982, at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Klein has long “been something of an enigma to Americans,” since his death in 1962, but interest is growing in the painter, as his works are starting to go for much higher prices, The New York Times reports. The exhibit, Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers, includes more than 100 pieces and opens in May. It’s great timing, as the artist’s works went for $25.5 million in London in February, including one work, which sold in 2001 for $549,660, bringing in $6.4 million, according to Christie’s. “More and more we’re starting to understand how Klein opened up the gates for what came in the late ’60s, ’70s and ’80s in Minimalism, Conceptual art, light and space art, and performance,” the Hirshhorn’s chief curator says. Klein was an aspiring judo instructor, a patent-holder of a deep blue color, was obsessed with space, had a great sense of humor and once threw himself out a window for a photo.