The invisible can be engaging with works such as Yoko Ono’s ‘instruction paintings’ which consist of written statements asking readers to visualise in their own minds the actions, images and scenarios suggested by the text.
The exhibition shows photographs recording one such transaction with Hollywood screenwriter Michael Blankfort. Several sale ceremonies were conducted in Paris on the banks of the river Seine, and if, in the spirit of immateriality the purchasers agreed to burn their receipts, Klein would throw the gold (or at least most of it) into the Seine. He began to issue certificates for these zones in exchange for pure gold. This led to the ritual sale of ‘zones of immaterial pictorial sensibility’ in 1959. He envisioned a new society in a non-material world.
Klein himself went on to explore the unseen in numerous ways. Among the surprises of the exhibition is the realisation that artists have used invisibility in so many different ways, says Richard Dorment of the Telegraph. Therefore, the fact that the whole exhibition is centred on the invisible does not mean it is repetitive. Since 1957, artists have been drawn by various motives to make work that engages with the invisible and this exhibition brings together the key moments in this history revealing that there is no apparent limit to the possible meanings of invisibility in art. This landmark work arguably kicked of a low profile tradition of invisible art that has spanned seven decades. We get a glimpse of this through a vivid archival film of the artist striding about his empty gallery contemplating the bare (but curiously glowing) walls as if there really was something to see. In the following year, Klein took this a step further and developed the immaterial room into an entire exhibition at Iris Clert’s Paris gallery. The artist argued that the white walls of that space were infused with the artist’s sensibility and nothing else. On that date Yves Klein opened an exhibition in Paris that included a seemingly empty room. As we enter the almost empty rooms with blank canvases, unoccupied plinths, and nearly invisible labels, it seems at first that we are being sold the emperor’s new clothes, but we quickly find that in presenting things that cannot be seen, artists are ultimately asking us to re-imagine how we engage with art.Īccording to the curator, Ralph Rugoff, it is possible that the history of what may be called ‘invisible art’ began on May 14, 1957. Invisible art seems to be a type of conversation between artist and audience.
Including works by Andy Warhol, Yves Klein, Yoko Ono, Maurizio Cattelan, and Robert Barry, this exhibition explores ideas related to the invisible and the hidden. Although there is not much to look at, there is a lot to appreciate. London: The latest show at the Hayward Gallery about the art of the unseen makes for a fascinating visit.
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