Performing on Paper

Yves Klein, "Untitled Anthropometry," 1960.

Yves Klein, the subject of a current retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. and the maker of this image, liked to compare his work to "ashes."  Creativity is often likened to an inner fire, and this work is the end product of an elaborate creative process.

Klein, a proto-performance artist, wanted art to be both distant and intimate and he solved this dilemma creatively. He thought of himself as the director of his work and used...