Yves Klein

YVES KLEIN (Nice, 1928 - Paris, 1962)
"L'Ours Pompon". 2022.
Handmade resin with IKB (International Klein Blue) finish.
Edition realized by Estates de Yves Klein on the model of the bear by François Pompon (Saulieu, 1855-Paris, 1933).
Numbered, accompanied by certificate with publisher's stamp and signed by the representatives of the rights holders of both artists.
Edition of 999 copies.
Measurements: 19 × 49 × 27 cm.

"L'Ours Pompon" projects Yves Klein's universe onto one of the most recognizable silhouettes of modern French sculpture, transforming François Pompon's bear through the absolute intensity of International Klein Blue. The piece shifts the formal purity of the original model into the immaterial and spiritual territory of color, the true conceptual axis of Klein's work.

Made of handcrafted resin with an IKB finish, the sculpture takes as its starting point the famous Pompon bear, an icon of volumetric synthesis and formal purity. However, the blue places it fully in Klein's orbit: for the artist, International Klein Blue was not a decorative color, but a space of pure sensibility, associated with the infinite, the invisible and the experience of the immaterial.

The edition was produced in 2022 with the authorization of Yves Klein's and François Pompon's beneficiaries, and is accompanied by a certificate with the publisher's stamp and the signature of the rights holders' representatives. This condition reinforces its interest in contemporary collecting, as it is an official production that unites two essential legacies of French art from a reading clearly dominated by the Kleinian imaginary.

The work also dialogues with a fundamental line in Klein's career: the appropriation of historical forms through IKB, as he did with emblematic sculptures of the classical tradition. In this sense, "L'Ours Pompon" prolongs the validity of his most recognizable language, where color becomes experience, energy and visual absolute.

Yves Klein was one of the decisive figures of the post-war European avant-garde and a fundamental artist for understanding the development of conceptual, performative and monochrome art in the 20th century. His name is inextricably linked to the International Klein Blue (IKB), with which he explored an idea of painting understood as an immaterial and absolute experience. Linked to the Nouveau Réalisme, his work encompassed painting, sculpture, actions and experimental projects that exerted a lasting influence on contemporary art. His work is preserved in leading institutions such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Tate in London and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.