cover image Yves Klein: Fire at the Heart of the Void

Yves Klein: Fire at the Heart of the Void

Pierre Restany. Journal of Contemporary Art, $19.95 (160pp) ISBN 978-0-9634713-0-7

``The aim of this book,'' Restany begins, ``is to situate Fire in Yves Klein's work from the triple perspectives of mythic projection, ritual symbology, and artistic practice.'' We are told that the myth of fire was central to Klein's work, and that the artist's use of the colors blue, gold and pink find their ``logical synthesis in the flame of fire.'' But how the nature of fire relates to Klein's cosmogony remains somewhat of a mystery. As critical advisor and friend of Klein, Restany ( Bernard Stern ) is very knowledgeable about his subject matter but his use of art jargon is so nonchalant, and his terms are so overwhelmingly abstract, that it is close to impossible for the reader to glean much insight on Klein. Another cause for the obliqueness of the text is the translation. Throughout the text, one can sense Loselle grasping for English abstractions big enough to match French phrases that have no English equivalent. Even a sentence with dates and titles is transformed into art-historic nebulae: ``In 1960, Yves Klein's Magnum Opus enters its cosmological phase and comes closer and closer to the glorious body.'' Illustrations. (Mar.)