When Experience Was Art
Just south of Paris on October 19th, 1960 Yves Klein and his wife visited the suburb of Fontenay-aux-Roses. It was a slightly overcast day and the Kleins were meeting with friends at 5 rue Gentil-Bernard in order to coordinate the artist’s most stunning yet perplexing act of art to date. Pictures were taken by the artist’s two most-admired photographers, John Kender and Harry Shunk. Soon after, Kender and Shunk provided Klein with a combination of their photographs that took the form of one stunning print measuring about 10” x 7”.
“Leap into the Void” is a black-and-white image portraying Yves Klein in the midst of a single, death-defying jump that appears to originate from the roof of a small building. The artist’s body extends into mid-air over an empty, concrete street. The back of a bicyclist appears in the distance on the right. No one except for the viewer of the photograph is watching this timeless event.
Contrary to all of the indicators in this photo, Yves Klein did not die nor was he injured. Rather on November 27th, 1960 he published the picture in his own newspaper titled “The Newspaper of a Single Day.” “I am the painter of space,” Klein wrote. “I am not…
