Yves the Provocateur: Yves Klein and Twentieth-Century Art

Yves the Provocateur collects Thomas McEvilley's writings which rejuvenated Klein's stature and hitherto were only available in journals and exhibition catalogues. In effect, it provides the "skeleton key" to clearly examine the full dimensions of Klein's accomplishment. In two opening essays, McEvilley briefly surveys and places Klein's art into context. Then, in the centerpiece essay -- which amounts to a miniature critical biography bearing all the best features of a novella -- he traces the formative and crucial events in Klein's life. Finally, he describes Klein's intellectual development, demonstrating how Klein embedded and parodied in his work the philosophical system of a particular form of Rosicrucianism. An extensive chronology is appended at the end. Twenty-one photographs, most of them full-page, appear throughout.