To highlight the groundbreaking nature of Yves Klein’s monumental FC 1(Fire Color 1) Christie’s commissioned award-winning filmmaker Laurent Chanez to make a three- minute video celebrating the creation of the masterpiece. Chanez has taken historic footage of Klein creating the work in 1962, using pigment-covered nude models and a hose of blazing fire as his “brushes”, and interspersed it with his own elemental imagery and composer Christian Zanesi’s abstract soundtrack to draw viewers into Klein’s unforgettably dramatic process of realizing this singular painting.
The most important work by Yves Klein ever offered at auction FC 1 comes up for sale in New York on May 8. It is estimated at $30-40 million. Christie’s say it is poised to break the world record for the artist. UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR WORLD RECORD PRICE OF $36,482,500, far exceeding the previous auction record of $23.5 million.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for April 5, 2012).