New: discover our new collection of ETUDE chairs
TIPTOE x Klein Blue®
MARCH 2023
TIPTOE has joined forces with the Yves Klein Archives to create an exclusive and limited collection of objects.
The exciting intersection of art and design
Since its creation in 2015, TIPTOE has been determined to make its mark on the history of French design by creating iconic pieces that will stand the test of time. A pioneer in environmental responsibility in the furniture industry, the brand made a name for itself by developing its bold and innovative clamp-on table legs.
Year after year, the studio has developed, designed and manufactured objects with the guiding principle of being at the forefront of environmental and social responsibility, with products that are 100% made in Europe by small- and medium-size companies (SMEs) with exceptional know-how. Some of them are even produced at the founder’s family workshops in Haute-Savoie.
Yves Klein, a major artist of the 20th century, bestowed upon history an original colour that has become the stuff of legend: an ultramarine blue of incomparable intensity, which according to him is “the most perfect expression of blue” and which he adopted as a vehicle for his quest for the immaterial and the infinite. This colour invention, which he named “IKB” (International Klein Blue), characterises many of his works, most notably his monochromes.
© Pierre Descargues
© Succession Yves Klein c/o ADAGP, Paris
The monochrome adventure
In 1953, Yves Klein declared monochromy as the fundamental concept of his painting. Driven by the idea of “freeing color from the prison of the line”, Yves Klein turned to monochromy because it was for him the only way to paint that allowed him to “see what the absolute was visible”. He decided to use color as a pure mode of expression.
“This sensation of total freedom of pure sensitive space exerted such a power of attraction on me that I painted monochrome surfaces to see, with my eyes, what the absolute had of visible.
Yves Klein, from “Le dépassement de la problématique de l’art”, 1959
The TIPTOE x Klein Blue® collaboration
vase : Margaux Keller collections
As part of our TIPTOE x Klein Blue collaboration, we worked hand in hand with the Yves Klein Archives, whose mission is to protect and promote the artist’s work, to formulate a blue that is true to the famous Klein Blue. We made two formulas: one for wood and one for steel, making sure they were identical so that the materials would blend perfectly.
“Blue has no dimension, it is out of dimension, while the other colors do. All the colors bring associations of concrete ideas. Whereas the blue recalls at most the sea and the sky, what there is of more abstract in the tangible and visible nature “.
Yves Klein’s work, but also his audacious and free spirit, are an inspiration for the designers of the TIPTOE brand who wanted to celebrate his legacy through this exclusive edition. Thus, the design studio has adorned its iconic objects (the 75 cm table base, the 43 cm table base, the Brooklyn coffee table, the LOU stool and the SSD chair) with Yves Klein’s famous blue.
“I didn’t like crushed oil colors. They seemed dead to me; what I liked most of all were the pure powdered pigments as I often saw them at the wholesale color dealers. They had an extraordinary brilliance and life of their own. It was color itself truly.”
The choice of materials and the manufacturing of the objects remain faithful to the values of TIPTOE. The pieces have been stamped and silk-screened in blue by its French partners. These are very resistant and qualitative artisanal manufacturing processes which are very important to us.
A limited and exclusive edition available from March 15 in stores and on the website tiptoe.fr.
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