Yves Klein

bachelard on immensity -

Baudelaire's daydream does not take place in contemplation of a universe. He pursues it - as he tells us - with closed eyes. He does not live on memories, and his poetic ecstasy has become, little by little, an eventless life. The angels whose wings had once shown blue in the sky have blended into a universal blue. Slowly, immensity becomes a primal value, a primal, intimate value. when the dreamer really experiences the word immense, he sees himself liberated from his cares and thoughts, even from his dreams. He is no longer shut up in his weight, his own being.

i read this and i immediately thought of Yves Klein. i remember first seeing his work in the pompidou years and years ago and it stopped me in my tracks. seeing him again recently my reaction was exactly the same, wordless, calm. i could try to rationalise it but in doing so i'd lose some of that effect, get involved in those divisional dialectics

for years i've painted mainly in blue. more recently i've had some experiments in red but it seems a different, less satisfying process. painting in blue, indigo is to be, as bachelard says, liberated from cares and thoughts. looking at yves klein feels much the same