Recently, Hubby’s colleague asked me “Hey Emily, do you know Yves Klein?” As an art historian, this is the kind of question I get a lot. “Do you know Picasso?” “Do you know Salvador Dali?” Anyways… do I know Yves Klein? Yes – a colour was named after him: International Klein Blue. Turns out, the reason he was asking was that his grandfather was Klein’s judo teacher in the late forties. (OK… that’s super cool!) To be clear, the practice of judo was highly influential on Klein artistic practice and often credited as being his first experience with “spiritual space.”
There are two points to my story (of which none is judo). 1) I truly believe in the concept of “six degrees of separation” (whaa! I’m connected to Yves Klein!) and 2) After all these years, how incredible that an artist would have enough influence that a colour would be named after him? Still today, we see Klein Blue pop up in art, fashion and home design. If you had to lend your name to any colour, which one would it be?
