Iris Clert Gallery - Post-Klein

Post-Klein

Although the relationship between Klein and Clert had officially been severed, a temporary conceptual association remained, and in October 1960, Arman, a close friend of Klein’s since childhood, exhibited in the Iris Clert Gallery. Arman’s exhibition was called Le Plein (The Full-Up). Le Plein was a direct contradiction of Klein’s Void: Arman filled the small gallery to the brim with garbage – piles upon piles of garbage. So much garbage, in fact, that the exhibition could only be viewed from the storefront window. Invitations to the exhibition were sent in small sardine cans, with the words "Arman – Le Plein – Iris Clert" printed simply on the pull-away top. Klein himself was supportive of his friend’s reversal, declaring "After my own emptiness comes Arman’s fullness. The universal memory of art was lacking his conclusive mummification of quantification."

Arman exhibited again in the Iris Clert Gallery in 1961, in an exhibition in which various artists created "portraits" of Iris Clert. Four years after Micro-salon d’Avril, the Iris Clert Gallery returned to a multiple-artist, single-concept exhibition. Arman’s portrait consisted of a wall-mounted box filled with various affects taken from Clert’s daily life: a high-heel shoe, a personal photograph, lipstick, and various bits of other rubbish. The other notable portrait was done by Robert Rauschenberg. Rauschenberg sent a telegram to the gallery declaring "This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so." The "portrait" was initially thrown away, but was later salvaged from the garbage, albeit crumpled up a bit, and put on display.

This proved to be the last major exhibition the Iris Clert Gallery housed. In 1963, the Gallery moved across the river Seine to the Right Bank, to a much larger location, but as the residual effects from Clert’s fifteen minutes of fame faded, so too did the gallery’s attendance, recognition, and business. By June 6, 1962, Klein’s sudden and untimely death was a moot point for the Iris Clert Gallery. In 1971, the doors of the Galerie Iris Clert finally closed for good, and Iris Clert herself slipped into relative anonymity and the folds of history.