Caran d’Ache + Klein Blue®: a collaboration celebrating the wide blue yonder

Since 1915, Caran d’Ache has radiated its love for colour through outstanding writing and drawing instruments. Today, the Geneva-based company unveils art in its purest form with the limited edition Caran d’Ache + Klein Blue® collection. A celebration of one of the most prolific artists of his generation, Caran d'Ache’s unique hundred year old expertise and know-how brings this new collection to life.

Hailed for this blue, Yves Klein also adopted various means of expression, both writing with fountain or ballpoint pens and drawing with colour or graphite pencils. This boundless creativity is embraced by Caran d’Ache, who has successfully provided anyone and everyone with a wide range of tools, shades and colours across generations.

The Yves Klein archives, making Caran d’Ache capable of illustrating the depth of IKB, have acknowledged this expertise. Seven of the Geneva-based company’s iconic products are adorned with his infinite blue for the original limited-edition collection Caran d’Ache + Klein Blue®.

Seven iconic Caran d’Ache products will be transformed to commemorate Yves Klein’s legacy. The collection celebrates creativity in all its forms, with a tool for every use. A collection in which the beauty and power of ultramarine is intertwined with the know-how of Caran d’Ache to pay the most touching homage to Yves Klein.

Born in Nice in 1928, Yves Klein’s first love was judo. In 1954, he began to focus on art in earnest and set out on his “monochrome adventure”. Driven by the idea of “freeing colour from the prison of the production line”, Yves Klein turned to monochromes as he believed these are the only means of painting, which allows us to “see the visible aspect of the absolute”.
In his quest for immaterialness and the infinite, Yves Klein adopted ultramarine as his vehicle. This bluer than blue shade, that he named “IKB” (International Klein Blue), radiates a, colour vibration that not only catches the eye of the spectator; but allows the mind to see with the eyes.
Between May 1954 and 6 June 1962, the date of his death, Yves Klein consumed his life to create a flamboyant work which marked his era and continues to shine bright today.