In the Netherlands, a new exhibition proposes a different way of looking at the legacy of Yves Klein, not as the story of a singular artistic genius, but as the product of a remarkable artistic family. The exhibition runs at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam from 22 March to 25 October.

At the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Yves Klein and His Artist Family brings together works not only by Klein but also by three figures closely bound to his life and artistic formation: his father Fred Klein, his mother Marie Raymond, and his partner Rotraut Klein-Moquay (known simply as Rotraut). Rather than positioning Klein in isolation, the exhibition reveals a dense constellation of artistic influences circulating within a single household.

The project is the result of years of research led by the ZERO Foundation and the Yves Klein Archives in Paris. Guest curator Tijs Visser began investigating the Klein family after questions arose around the authorship of an unusual painting once attributed to Klein but signed only “Klein”. The inquiry ultimately opened a much broader field of discovery.

Visser’s research revealed that Fred Klein’s work, for example, had once been widely collected in the Netherlands, appearing in museum collections in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Schiedam as well as in institutional holdings. An extensive archive dedicated to him also exists at the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History. Yet despite this history, the artistic legacy of the family has remained largely overlooked.

The exhibition brings together around thirty works by Yves Klein alongside more than forty pieces by the other members of his artistic circle. Each artist occupies a different position within the trajectory of twentieth-century modernism. Fred Klein’s painting follows the lineage of French Impressionism, while Marie Raymond developed an abstract language aligned with post-war gestural painting. Yves Klein’s practice, by contrast, moves toward a conceptual investigation of colour, immateriality and the infinite. Rotraut, who continues to work today, shares Klein’s fascination with the cosmos, pursuing a spiritual and cosmic dimension in her sculpture and painting.

The exhibition also sheds light on a lesser-known aspect of Klein’s biography: his connections to the Netherlands. Both Fred Klein and Marie Raymond held Dutch passports and regularly exhibited in Schiedam, and Fred even staged a major exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum. During visits to Amsterdam, Yves Klein encountered the work of artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Johannes Vermeer—experiences that, according to Visser, helped shape his artistic sensibility.

Seen together, the works reveal a network of affinities rather than a linear narrative of influence. Instead of the myth of the solitary avant-garde figure, Yves Klein and His Artist Family proposes something more complex: an artistic universe formed through proximity, dialogue and shared curiosity about colour, matter and the cosmos.

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Images: Yves Klein, Planetaire reliëf ‘Regio Grenoble’, (RP 10), 1961, postume editie, ca 1990, droog pigment en synthetische hars op brons, 86 x 65 cm, © The Estate of Yves Klein c/o Pictoright Amsterdam, 2026 and Yves Klein, Résonance, (MG 16), 1960, bladgoud op paneel, 199 x 153 cm, collectie Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam © The Estate of Yves Klein c/o ADAGP, Parijs