Yves Klein Painted Everything Blue and Wasn’t Sorry

Meet an artist who invented his own color; painted with fire and smoke, water and wind; raced cockroaches in his spare time; and dressed as a knight at his wedding. Gilberti’s funny and delightful look at the French avant-garde artist Yves Klein begins on the rainy Parisian day that inspired the artist to create his signature shade, international Klein blue. “Yves decided that from then on, he would paint everything in blue!” The story follows Yves’s gonzo, expansive creative practice—covering canvases and bodies in IKB; creating blue cocktails; releasing 1,001 blue balloons; composing a symphony from a single note; and staging photographic illusions. Googly-eyed people with calligraphic arms and spidery fingers keep busy in Gilberti’s delightfully cartoony black, white, and IKB-esque blue illustrations. A singular book about an inspiring charmer: “People around the world remember him not only for his blue paintings but also for the daring ways he chose to create. Bravo, Yves!” Ages 4–7. [em](Sept.) [/em]