Journal of Sports and Games Volume 1, Issue 1, 2019, PP 8-14 Yves Klein and Judo as a Sport and an Art Dr. Daniel Shorkend Wizo, near Bloomefeld School of Design is in Haifa, Israel *Corresponding Author: Dr. Daniel Shorkend, Wizo, near Bloomefeld School of Design is in Haifa, Israel ABSTRACT In this article I develop three philosophical suppositions that link art and sport, in particular the martial arts of Judo. These suppositions, namely the integration of mind-and body; imagination and the trans-verbal or ineffable are then applied to a reading of the art of Yves Klein, who himself was also an expert judoka. The article suggests that art and aesthetics in general is pervasive and finds expression in sports, a thesis that is not new and has emerged as the so-named aesthetics of the everyday. What is perhaps new is the specific application of art to the realm of sport and thus the appellation “martial arts” is apt. Keywords: art; judo; Yves Klein; mind-and-body INTRODUCTION feeling which defies description. One may attribute to such performances a kind of In this article I develop three suppositions that somberness, serenity, even the mystical. It is, devolve out of a comparison between art and perhaps as Kandinsky says: “…painting sport. I then develop and apply these (sport)…needs its materiality for that very suppositions as they relate to judo and Yves dematerialization that shows the road from the Klein’s art. Yves Klein himself was an expert external to the internal” (In Janson, 1967:115). Judoka (judo practitioner) and refers to judo as instrumental in his art-making process and Via the “external” of say, a Newman painting, intentions. Having discerned a link between the onlooker may become aware of his own judo and art, based on the three suppositions, I body (via the painting’s presence). It is therefore wish to conclude that a martial art such as judo no surprise that Newman asked his viewers to may be understood as an art-form which see his paintings close-up wherein a sense of the inverted, implies that art is a kind of martial art, aliveness of the onlooker was conjured, a sense that is, a subtle bodily mode of expression and of place and awareness as opposed to reception. In this way, one might venture to say separation. The visual experience may be said to that the division between a (playful) discipline be permeated with emotion. I would claim that such as judo and an activity such as art is rather the following of sports on television does a blurred. similar thing to the onlooker, the “external” close-up of the action vitalizes the viewer SUPPOSITIONS 1: AN EXPRESSION ABOVE (obviously this aptly applies to his/her chosen LANGUAGE AND TOWARD THE INEFFABLE sport). In this close-up, we may experience a I begin with the supposition that fact physical kind of non-verbal identification with the activity and picture-making was/is crucial to our “external” that borders on the ineffable. evolution; they need their primitive roots. Such As for the practitioner of art or sport, one may activity, it will be noted, in both art-making and surmise that in striving he/she can experience sport are also trans-rational and thus beyond the wholeness. Through thus expressing themselves, analytical mind. Furthermore, both are perfected they press themselves out, as it were. This through training and require the special inner “pressing themselves out” is like love and drive or intuition. The upshot of all this is that friendship which is both predicated on a lack the artist and sportsperson allows us to extend and a giving of self. Similar perhaps to a the range of our expressive powers beyond that Tolstoyan desire to communicate and share, the which we find within our own resources. For practitioner is in a position to express “…a gift example, one may say that a Rothko or of the abundance of what we all are” (Hyland Bannister’s running helps me to express a 1990:41). This is expressed in the non-verbal Journal of Sports and Games V1 ● I1 ● 2019 8 Yves Klein and Judo as a Sport and an Art language of art and sport. The language of the sought an overlap of his love for art and sporting event or artwork may have the veneer understanding of the art and science of judo. He of linear time and logic, but in reality, given sought to express that which is above words in their primitive origins, they are both expressions his performancesi and paintings. Klein’s blue of an intense unnamed emotional need that monochromes were his language that creates a defies verbal articulation. Metaphorically we sense of weightlessness (the essence of a correct can say it is like that ballet move or that sound judo technique) and spatial determinacy. The without being able to pinpoint exactly what that viewer may feel drawn into the depth of blue movement or that sound expresses. that appeared to transmute the material substance of the painting support into an In order to perform at a high level, one has to incorporeal quality, tranquil and serene (adapted become one with the game or one with the act of from Weitemeier 1995:18). I cannot say it better painting (or be in that ballet movement or in than Yves Klein himself: “What is blue? Blue is that sound), just flowing with it with full the invisible becoming visible…blue has no concentration. To the extent that one can do dimensions. It is beyond the dimensions of that, the sportsperson may say “the game played which other colors partake” (in Weitemeier me” or the painting told me what it wanted. This 1995:19). I believe it was this same ineffable attitude transcends competitiveness. Banister, search that he sought in art and through judo- the famous sub four minute miler expressed a movements that the latter could also suggest a great sense of thankfulness at fulfilling his aims, boundless sensibility, that which “has no rather than a sense of vanquishing his opponent. dimensions”. I shall return to Klein later in the In sport as in art, one is ultimately against article. oneself. This means that both sport and art require introspection and incessant refinement to SUPPOSITION 2 - THE INTEGRATION OF find and express that spark within. That “spark” MIND-AND-BODY is not easy to define – one may be able to express it in the repetition of the same great play I have been arguing that emotions (or the pre- or by forging a style. One has thus said it non- verbal) and the expression thereof play a pivotal verbally or beyond conventional language. role in both art and sport. Now if emotions can be construed as the link between the bodily and Keenan (in Osterhoudt 1973) argues that sport is mental, then an expressive theory of both art and like theatre, in that it consists in performances sport could account for a meaningful within a special and contrived world, as “an interweaving of mind-and-body through such idealization of the everyday”. Like dramatic endeavors. The benefit of such an tragedy it has its “acts” (for example - half “interweaving” is that art and sport galvanize time), “players” refer both to sports men and people in meaningful ways. Weiss (1969:29) woman and actors and actresses, there is puts it like this: “…because art and sport clapping for a good performance and a quest for involve a controlled expression of emotions, the great struggle. Camus (1913-1960) in making it possible for minds and bodies to be Osterhoudt (1973:306) says: “…even today, the harmonized clearly and intensely, they offer stadium crammed full of spectators for a Sunday excellent agencies for unifying men.” match and the theatre which I loved with unequal intensity are the only places in the The individual too may benefit from this mind- world where I felt innocent”. I believe that this body relationship. Weiss once more: “…only he “innocence” felt by Camus can be located in the who expresses his emotions through such a primordial child-like quality to find meaning in possessed and structured body can become well- games (sport, art…), the spirit demonstrated by unified and not be undone by what he feels” the “players” and the inexpressible (beyond (Weiss 1969:21). In this process, the words) somehow represented to the senses. artist/sportsperson is said to have a mind to quicken and guide his body and a body as a Womack (2003:35) concurs that the arts and source for acts desirable and effective. It is a sport are mediums of expression without body used, not simply worked on by what is recourse to words when she says, “sport external to it. Weiss thus uses the analogy of not communicates through the language of symbols hand-in-glove to represent the nature of the and, like art, it dramatizes complex ideas that mind and body and its apparent dualism, a cannot readily be expressed in words”. In this perennial problem in philosophy. Rather the light, one can make the brief argument that Yves mind-body interaction is like fingers to a hand – Klein (1930-1965), an artist and expert Judoka, the fingers (or body) presuppose a hand (or 9 Journal of Sports and Games V1 ● I1 ● 2019 Yves Klein and Judo as a Sport and an Art mind or self). Through practice both tend can say both activities have the potential to toward a rule-governed, well-controlled action. express a unity of self.