Klein, Yves (1928-1962), French painter, a leading member of the neo-dadaists in Europe, and who, with critic Pierre Restany, artist Jean Tinguely, and others, founded Nouveau Réalisme (new realism), a movement in which elements that constitute everyday reality—such as junk metal or rubbish collected at random—are transformed into works of art. Klein was also a jazz musician and a black belt judoka.

Klein was born in Nice but spent most of his working life in Paris. Among his earliest works are the monochromes—canvases covered with flat washes of color—that he began painting in 1946. The monochromes were initially in a variety of colors. By the mid-1950s Klein had restricted his painting to blue. He used the color to make paintings and sculptures, often featuring sponges painted blue. Through his monochromes, Klein sought to free art from line and form and to rid it of its material dimension.

There then followed a succession of controversial exhibitions at various locations in Paris. Le Vide (1958, The Void), a show in which the sole exhibit was the whitewashed interior of an art gallery, was variously derided and admired by the 3000 people who came to see it. Klein then embarked on a series of "Living Brush" exhibitions, public performances in which, under his direction, naked models covered themselves in blue paint and used their bodies to make an imprint on canvas laid out on the floor. One such performance, which took place at the Galerie Internationale d’Art Contemporain in 1960, was accompanied by an orchestral rendition of Klein’s Symphonie Monochrome, in which a chord, held for 20 minutes, was followed by a 20-minute silence. Klein called these "Living Brush" paintings Anthropométries. He also created Cosmogonies (made by exposing paper to rain) and Peintures de Feu,"fire paintings" made with a flamethrower.

Klein also developed an obsession with levitation and flying and with the idea of the cosmic void. In October 1960 he arranged to have himself photographed as he leapt out of a second-floor window. The photograph, entitled Leap into the Void, was retouched to create the illusion of Klein famously launching himself into thin air.
Soon after this, Klein, Restany, and eight other artists launched Nouveau Réalisme and issued a manifesto. From that time, however, Klein began to suffer personal and artistic decline. He died of a heart attack following a heated debate at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.