VIDEO:The Life and Work of Yves Klein told by Rotraut

“He was so young and beautiful and intense, like sunshine.” Watch the absorbing story of German-French artist Rotraut and the iconic French artist Yves Klein, who shared an instant spiritual connection in the four intense years “that felt like a hundred,” where they were lovers, collaborators and soul mates – from their first meeting to Klein’s untimely death at the age of 34.

The artist Rotraut Uecker was 19 when she worked as an au pair for the artist Arman (b. 1928-d.2005) in Nice. Half a year earlier, she had found herself hypnotized by a blue monochrome painting at an exhibition in Düsseldorf, and was amazed when she saw a little red monochrome in the home of Arman by the same artist – the then 29-year-old Yves Klein. When the two met, sparks immediately flew, and Rotraut feels that they became one. She was very sensitive to his work, which took her breath away, not least his use of the colour blue in his monochrome paintings: “You can disappear into it… You forget the frame, the size, you just get lost into it, into the universe. Also, the immateriality of it – what you can do with colour is so big and so powerful… It’s a big window into something that has no limit.” The couple were together for only four years, but Rotraut describes how those four years felt like a hundred: “It was so intense, so many things happened, and I learned so much.” She took on the role of Klein’s assistant, model and muse, and in the video, she also talks about how she assisted Klein, how she experienced – and sometimes participated in – his work.

From the beginning, Klein said to Rotraut that he didn’t think he would live very long and that his artwork of the void and the immaterial was calling him: “He was thinking of surviving spiritually, and that his artwork would be more complete.” Shortly before his death, he told a friend that “I will soon have the biggest studio in the whole world, creating only immaterial works.” When Klein suffered a fatal heart attack in 1962, Rotraut was seven months pregnant, and Klein had expressed that he didn’t think he would live to see his child – he was right. Klein remained in their home for four days, during which people could come and see him – the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely (b.1925-d.1991) even mistook it for a performance. The thought that comforted Rotraut in the difficult time that followed was that Klein continued to live in the immaterial: “An artist is kind of living in between times. There is no time, really. The art is always timeless.” Moreover, Rotraut believes that we all carry the souls of the deceased within us: “We’re not alone, and it’s nice to think that we will continually be around.”

Rotraut Klein-Moquay (b. 1938) is a German-French artist, known for her unique drawings and sculptures made out of marble, iron, aluminium, bronze, wood or plastic. She has participated in several solo and group shows since 1958 and her work is represented in numerous public collections in the U.S. and Europe, including Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Rotraut met and worked for French artist Yves Klein in 1958, subsequently marrying him in 1962 until his untimely death five months later. Rotraut is also the sister of German artist Günther Uecker.

Yves Klein (b.1928-d.1962) is a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. Klein was a leading member of the French artistic movement Nouveau Réalisme founded in 1960 and a pioneer in the development of performance art, as well as a forerunner of minimal art and pop art, breaking down the boundaries between conceptual art, sculpture, painting and performance. The artist used blue as the vehicle for his quest to capture immateriality and the infinite, and the colour came to be known as International Klein Blue (1960). Among his most important works are his Monochromes (such as ‘Blue Monochrome’ (1957) and ‘Triptykon: Monopink (MP 16), Monogold (MG17), Monoblue (IKB 75)’ (1960)), Anthropométries (ca. 1958) (made by a nude model pressing herself against the canvas under his direction), Fire Paintings (ca. 1961) (achieved by the controlled use of an open, dangerous flame on chemically-modified fields of paper.), ‘Leap Into the Void’ (1960), ‘The Void’ (1957) and ‘Blue Venus’ (1960). Moreover, Klein became an expert at judo, earning the highest honour in the martial art and spending fifteen months in Japan, before dedicating himself fully to art in 1954.

Rotraut Klein-Moquay, The Life and Work of Yves Klein Told by Rotraut, Interview by Christian Lund, Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard, Edited by Klaus Elmer, Produced by Christian Lund, © Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2018,Supported by Nordea-fonden
All photos and works by Yves Klein in the video: © Courtesy of The Estate of Yves Klein, © The Estate of Yves Klein, ADAGP Paris, 2018, © Photo: All right reserved
Interview with Rotraut from 1966: ‘L’Actualité Artistique présente: Yves Klein’ (1966), 23 minutes, Produced by: Yvan Butler, Interview by: Marlène Belilos