What defines art in the realm of immaterial creations?

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Yves Klein treated art as something defined by immaterial “pictorial sensibility” rather than a physical object
Yves Klein repeatedly questioned what constitutes an object of art, framing the answer around immaterial potential. Beginning in the early 1950s, he pursued “immaterial art,” culminating in works such as Zone de sensibilité picturale immatérielle Série n°1, Zone n°02, which relates to experiments with the void and the immaterial. In 1958, he produced a certificate of authenticity for the work shortly after the “The Void” exhibition at the Iris Clert gallery in Paris, where the space was emptied of contents but described as “saturated with pictorial sensibility in its pure state.”
“The Void” exhibition linked emptiness to “pictorial sensibility in its pure state”
Klein’s approach treated an emptied space as more than absence, presenting it as filled with “pictorial sensibility in its pure state.” The “The Void” exhibition at the Iris Clert gallery in Paris took place on April 28, 1958, and the gallery space was emptied of all its contents for that showing. Sotheby’s also ties this framing to how Klein understood what could count as art.
Zone de sensibilité picturale immatérielle Série n°1, Zone n°02 materialised an immaterial concept
Zone de sensibilité picturale immatérielle Série n°1, Zone n°02 served as evidence of Klein’s experiments into the void and the immaterial. A certificate of authenticity for this specific work was produced a few months after “The Void” opened, anchoring the immaterial idea to a documented transfer. The work was later auctioned by Sotheby’s on April 6, during the “Collection Loïc Malle: Only Time Will Tell” sale in Paris.
Ownership was exchanged through receipts for invisible “zones” of empty space
Between 1959 and 1962, Klein sold invisible, intangible “zones of immaterial pictorial sensitivity” that existed only conceptually. Buyers paid with a weight in pure gold and received a receipt designed to look like a cashier’s check. They could either keep the receipt to make the corresponding immaterial area transferable through resale, or burn it in a ritual.
The receipt system and transfer records are viewed as precursors to NFTs and blockchain
Sotheby’s highlighted that the transfer of a “zone of sensitivity” and the invention of receipts can be seen as an ancestor of NFTs, which enable the exchange of immaterial works. It also noted that Klein kept a register of successive owners of the “zones,” likening this to the “blockchain.” The auction result reflected the enduring market interest: Zone de sensibilité picturale immatérielle Série n°1, Zone n°02 sold for more than €1 million to an anonymous European collector.

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What defines art in the realm of immaterial creations?

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