Marie Raymond, Yves Klein and Fred Klein, 1954, photo ©: All rights reserved, © The Estate of Yves Klein c/o ADAGP, Paris
When we think of Yves Klein, his distinctive shade of blue – International Klein Blue, which he patented in 1960 – immediately comes to mind. Throughout his brief yet remarkable life, he was surrounded by a colourful family of artists. His father, mother, and wife were all engaged in their own artistic pursuits, inspiring and challenging one another. Although Yves Klein’s work is still celebrated internationally, it has been decades since an exhibition of his work was held in the Netherlands. Thanks to close collaboration with the Yves Klein Archives in Paris, a significant number of his works will be displayed together in a Dutch museum for the first time since the exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1965.
Colour and cosmos
Although the works of the Klein family members were created independently, they share a remarkable affinity for vibrant colours and a profound interest in the cosmos. Through this, they create new worlds. The exhibition Yves Klein and His Artist Family Fred, Marie and Rotraut showcases the similarities and differences in their oeuvres. The works of this extraordinary family of artists will also be contextualised within the broader history of art, highlighting their active roles in the development of modern visual art and the networks in which they participated.
Yves Klein, Planetary Relief ‘Région de Grenoble’, (RP 10), 1961, posthumous edition ca. 1990, dry pigment and synthetic resin on bronze, 86 x 65 cm, © The Estate of Yves Klein c/o ADAGP, Paris
Fred Klein (1898–1990) was born in Bandung, Indonesia. He moved to the Netherlands with his family at the age of five. He spent much of his adult life shuttling between Paris and Wassenaar. He painted landscapes, including beaches and parks, as well as circus scenes featuring horses. His dreamlike paintings suggest the influence of Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard, and William Turner. Fred Klein is often referred to as the ‘painter of light’, but his work is thematically closer to that of Marc Chagall and Giorgio de Chirico.
Fred Klein, Maternité [Maternity], 1929, oil on canvas, 73 x 54 cm, private collection, © Frits Klein c/o ADAGP, Paris
His works are included in the National Collection, the art collection of the Dutch Central Bank, and the Centraal Museum in Utrecht. They can also be found in the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and in private collections across the Netherlands.
Fred Klein married the Frenchwoman Marie Raymond, who acquired Dutch citizenship through their marriage. In the 1950s, Marie Raymond (1908-1988) organised weekly salon gatherings for Parisian artists, museum directors, writers and scientists and had a column as an art critic in the Dutch magazine ‘Kroniek van Kunst en Kultuur’, making her an ambassador for Parisian artistic life in the Netherlands until 1958. Her paintings initially consist of framed planes of colour; later, in the 1950s, these evolved into standalone planes of colour and loose forms. In 1956, she exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, which also holds one of her works in its collection. In 1957, she exhibited at the Utrechtse Kring, a cultural hub for visual artists, writers, musicians, and other creatives. Her work can also be found in private collections.
Marie Raymond, Sans titre [Untitled], 1948, oil on canvas, 64,5 x 81 cm, © Marie Raymond Archives, ADAGP, Paris, private collection
Director Anne de Haij: “It is remarkable that the works of Yves Klein and his partner Rotraut can now be added to the illustrious exhibition history of the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. That brings things full circle.”
Yves Klein, Résonance, (MG 16), 1960, gold leaves on panel, 199 x 153 cm, collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam © The Estate of Yves Klein c/o ADAGP, Paris
Yves Klein
Yves Klein (1928-1962) was born in Nice. Initially, it was unclear whether he would follow in his parents’ artistic footsteps. After repeatedly dropping out of various courses and rambling around, he travelled to Japan in 1952, to perfect his judo and earned a black belt 4th dan at the Kodokan Judo Institute in Tokyo, thus reaching the highest level in Europe. Through this sport, Klein found an outlet for his fascination with body posture, movement, and energy – elements that would later find expression in his art.
In 1954, he took part in a judo competition in Utrecht against the well-known Anton Geesink. On the same year, the French judo community, refused to recognize his Japanese diploma. Having lost hope of ever leading the French Judo Federation, Yves turned his attention more towards art. Yves eventually made his artistic debut in 1955 with a solo exhibition titled Yves – Peintures at the Club des Solitaires Editions Lacoste in Paris, where he displayed his monochrome canvases in different colours for the first time. The intense blue monochromes in particular prove to be an appealing representation of infinity and are intended to reflect the immateriality of space. This unique formula, which combines ultramarine pigments with a new binder that preserves their intensity, was patented in 1960 as International Klein Blue (IKB) and became Yves Klein’s ultimate artistic signature. But his work was much more than that: he collaborated with human models as living brushes, leaving imprints on canvases with their paint-covered bodies. His profound influence on the art world stemmed from a multitude of exhibitions, performances, happenings, and other events, many of which he organised himself. His art is radical, intelligent, versatile and audacious. His parents had very different reactions to his work and success: while his mother Marie Raymond encouraged him, his father Fred Klein remained more critical and distant.
Yves Klein, Untitled Anthropometry, (ANT 7), 1960, dry pigment and synthetic resin on paper, 102 x 73 cm, © The Estate of Yves Klein c/o ADAGP, Paris, photo ©: David Bordes
Yves Klein, Untitled Pink Sponge Relief, (RE 8), 1960, dry pigment and synthetic resin, natural sponges and pebbels on panel, 68 x 22,6 cm, © The Estate of Yves Klein c/o ADAGP, Paris
Yves’ work has been seen only sporadically in exhibitions in the Netherlands, with the last exhibition taking place at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1965. His artworks are featured in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, as well as various private collections.
Rotraut
Rotraut, born Rotraut Uecker (1938), is an artist who creates drawings, paintings, and sculptures inspired by the forms and phenomena of nature and the cosmos. In 1958, she met Yves Klein, with whom she began an intensive collaboration. They married in 1962, shortly before his death. In 1956, Rotraut created her first Galaxies. She produced visual points of light resembling stars in the cosmos by dripping glue onto a wooden board, covering it with black ink or paint, and then sanding it down. In 1964, she exhibited her Galaxies at the Amstel 47 gallery in Amsterdam. In her series Vol de sensibilité, she explores the sensitivity to form of painters such as Rubens, Cézanne, and Gauguin. She achieves this by projecting slides of their paintings onto large sheets of paper and then emphatically overpainting the colours in a way that reflects her own feelings about the movements. Rotraut continues to create art and initiated together with Daniel Moquay the Yves Klein Archives and more recently the Yves Klein Foundation.
Rotraut, Trou noir [Black hole], ca. 1972, acrylic on canvas mounted on plywood, 100 x 73,2 cm, © Rotraut Co, ADAGP, Paris
Marie Raymond, Le Monde étoilé, [The Starry World], 1969 , oil on canvas, 116 x 73 cm, © Marie Raymond Archives, ADAGP, Paris
The exhibition
Spanning three floors of one wing of the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, the exhibition Yves Klein and His Artist Family Fred, Marie and Rotraut presents the works of four artists. In addition to their art, the exhibition features extensive archival materials – including letters, photographs, and printed documents – that illuminate the family members’ lives and their distinctive connections to the Netherlands.
Through the art created within this single family, the museum traces the evolution from figuration to abstraction and the emergence of conceptual art. The exhibition also emphasizes that this progression is not linear but rather a convergence of diverse artistic perspectives that have long coexisted.
Portrait of Rotraut and Yves Klein during their trip in the United States, 1961, New York Harbor, photo ©: All rights reserved
With Yves Klein and His Artist Family Fred, Marie and Rotraut, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam once again offers an exhibition that sheds light on international artists from an unexpected and Dutch perspective. Previous examples include Manzoni in Holland (2019) and Yayoi Kusama: The Dutch Years 1965-1970 (2023-2024). These exhibitions have laid the foundation for introducing Yves Klein and His Artist Family to a wide and varied audience.
Mattijs Visser from the 0-INSTITUTE developed the concept for this exhibition and was also responsible for the Yayoi Kusama exhibition. Colin Huizing, who previously curated the Piero Manzoni exhibition, joins Visser on the curatorial team. Yves Klein and His Artist Family Fred, Marie and Rotraut is created in close collaboration with the Yves Klein Archives in Paris.
Publication
A book of the same title will be published in Dutch and English by MER. Books in Ghent, compiled by curator Tijs Visser (director of 0-INSTITUUT) with contributions from co-curator Colin Huizing and authors Robert Fleck, Michèle Gazier, Bianca Stigter, and Victor Vanoosten. Price €29.00, ISBN 9789493491335 (Dutch edition) and ISBN 9789493491366 (English edition), soon available at Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, in bookstores, and online via Merbooks.com.
With thanks to
The Municipality of Schiedam, Blockbusterfonds: Vriendenloterij, VSB Fonds, het Cultuurfonds, Van den Ende Foundation, FONDS Schiedam Vlaardingen e.o., Turing Foundation, De Groot Fonds en Zabawas.