RECENTLY Louise wrote about the Chanel Ephemeral Boutique in Bergdorf Goodman, New York, with its chic wood panelled walls trimmed in gold and elegant colour palette. This space also brought the Yves Klein cocktail table back into consciousness, and as if by design, the recent Céline Spring 2017 RTW collection also included prints of Klein’s 1960 “Anthropometry” paintings, created using nudes as “human brushes”.
Yves Klein (1928-1962) was a French artist important for his role in post-war European art and the leading member of the French artistic movement, Nouveau Réalisme, founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein was also a pioneer in the development of performance art and a forerunner of Minimal art, as well as Pop Art. He is most likely best known for his signature shade of blue — a rich shade of ultramarine that he used throughout his career in monochrome paintings amongst other work, a colour that he made his own when he had it patented as “International Klein Blue” (Hex code #002FA7).
In the early 1960’s, Klein wandered into the world of furniture design. The result was a low Plexiglas, glass and steel cocktail table design filled with bold materials that appeared to be suspended in space. The artist designed three different versions of the table: Table Bleue, filled with International Klein Blue (IKB) pigment, Table Rose, filled with bright pink pigment (Monopink/MP), as well as Table D’Or, gold/yellow (Monogold/MG), which was filled with 3000 sheets of gold leaf, as seen above. Here, we’ve collected beautiful interiors that include these iconic tables. We’re partial to the Table D’Or, of course. Which one is your favourite?
PS Shortly after Klein died suddenly in 1962, under the supervision of his widow, Rotraut Klein-Moquay, the cocktail tables were re-issued based on a model he designed in 1961. They are now available at various places, including Artware & Weng Contemporary
Top image: @kristenmarienichols on Instagram
