The practice of making ex-votos is ancient and widespread.  An abundance of sources from the sixth century onward, articulate objections to the whole practice on the grounds that it is pagan in origin.
When it comes to the practice of making ex-votos, the central psychological factor is, the desire to give thanks, with the recording of gratitude for salvation from disease or disaster by what is perceived as divine intervention.  Images or objects are constructed and are regarded as the effective and adequate vehicle for expressing and giving thanks.

For Klein it was the act of paying homage to Saint Rita (c. 1381-c. 1456), the patron saint of lost causes or the impossible.

Klein's belief in Saint Rita's intervention was instilled through the influence of his Aunt Rose, who believed strongly in Rita's ability to bring about miracles.  Klein had attributed his success of acquiring the commission for Gelsenkirchen to the Saint.

Klein made at least five pilgrimages to Cascia.  The first time he made the pilgrimage by himself, he returned in 1958 with his Aunt Rose and left a blue monochrome among the ex-voto objects.  This was Klein's first offering of thanks to Saint Rita.

Klein was deeply devoted to Saint Rita and turned to her through prayer to intercede in his artistic endeavours.  Klein's faith was extremely private and his visits to Cascia were done secretly.  Saint Rita provided a spiritual base for the artist along with Rosicrucian, occults, and alchemical theories.
The focus of spiritualism reinforced Klein's view on the immaterial.  The focus of spiritual matters led Klein away from image and traditional compositional concerns, towards the emphasis of colour's ambience.  Spiritual concerns would also lead Klein beyond colour toward indefinable realms of spatiality and the invisible.
In late February 1961 soon after a retrospective exhibition opening at the Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld, Klein presented Saint Rita with a votive offering and a dedicatory text.

The ex-voto that Klein had given the monastery consisted of a transparent plastic box, divided into three compartments.  The top compartment had three sections, each had been filled with paint pigment in the first rose (monopink), the second ultramarine blue (International Klein Blue) and the third a gold leaf compartment (monogold).

Within the middle section of the box was a text by Klein written on paper which was folded into pleats.  The text is a hymn of thanksgiving to Saint Rita, whom Klein attributes to his success in his production of art of the past.  Klein places himself under the Saint=s benevolence and invokes her aid to assure future success and eternal survival of his work.

The bottom compartment was a bed of blue pigment which housed three bars of gold of different weights.  The bars of gold which were attained by way of sales of zones of immaterial pictorial sensibility.  Klein sold these zones of sensibility in exchange for gold: he gave the buyer a check representing the value of the gold received.  If the purchaser of the zone was to destroy their check, which lay claim to their ownership of part of the zone immediately, all the gold was restored to the cosmos by being thrown into the Seine river.

Klein gave Saint Rita the gold left to him as a result of the first four sales of the immaterial, the first three participants had kept the receipts (checks) so Klein did not throw the gold in the Seine, the forth sale was later burned (check), allowing for only three gold bars being made available as an offering to Saint Rita.
The votive offering to Saint Rita containing the colours blue, red and gold reflect Klein=s concept of a triad.  The grouping of colours bear a close relationship to the three primary colours-red, yellow and blue which refers to Mondrian's use of these colours in his theory of neoplastic, cosmic philosophy about harmony and order. Yet Klein wanted to distinguish his theory of colour from Mondrian=s because he strongly rejected Mondrian=s stance. Klein was not concerned with the separate properties of each colour, but the power of colour itself and the concept that the three colours were all aspects of a greater ambience.  All three live in one and the same state, each impregnated in the other, all being perfectly independent one from the other. (Stich 194)
Although Klein promoted the concept of a colour triad, Klein never created triptychs that juxtaposed the three colours.  Klein produced works of the same size and format of the colours but never grouped them together.  The decision not to create triptychs continued the concept in his early monochrome exhibitions, the works were seen as similar - yet - different, related - but - autonomous.

Klein's offering is at one time puzzling and intriguing.  What is most puzzling is the fact that Klein had dealt in so many varied  disciplines and beliefs, whether it was concepts of nature as a force (the void), disciplines of Judo, Rosicrucianism, alchemist theories or Cosmogony.  It probably is best explained, however speculative it may appear, as an influence of his childhood.  Acts of devotion were very popular towards Saint Rita in Nice, which was Yves native town.  Growing up under the care of his Aunt Rose and being educated in his formative years in a Catholic school system, appear as pervasive reasons for his offering.

At this point of the discussion I want to touch briefly upon aspects of Rosicrucianism and the Cabala.  Rosicrucian is derived from the Latin translation (rosae crucis) of Rosenkreutz (German, Arose cross) the name of the founder of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood.  The existence of the brotherhood was publicly announced by two anonymous pamphlets published in Kassel Germany, in 1614 and 1615.  The pamphlets sought to reform general aspects of knowledge and society, based on the principles of Christian Rosenkreutz (1378-1484), who was described as a wise man who studied numbers, magic, Alchemy and the Cabala during his travels in the East and in Europe.  'Readers were urged to join the brotherhood in its work of renewing society through Rosicrucian knowledge and returning to the state of Adam in Paradise'. (Galbreath 383)

Cabala: Hebrew word for 'tradition' is from traditional Jewish Mysticism, Theosophy and magic that evolved from Hellenistic roots.  Cabala seeks to explain the nature of reality, the levels of being, the origin of evil, and the ways of attaining knowledge of God.

A Cabalistic teaching focuses on the Sefirot, the ten qualities or powers of God. (The Ein-sof, the infinite, who is described as undifferentiated, absolute perfection). The Sefirot are simultaneously the emanations of God's power, the names of God, the realms or planes of the Godhead, and the inner foundation of every created being or thing.(Galbreath 372)

The purpose of cabalistic study is to guide the soul back to its home in the Godhead.  Through prayer and mediation, qualities are developed in the individual and lead to harmonious integration with the world of Sefirot.
At this point I want to state that Klein's pursuits and perhaps even the Void, for Klein, appears  to be a manifestation of God's providence.  'For Klein, it was seminal to separate art from the psychological world wherein an individual conceives of himself as the center of the universe . . . Instead, an individual ought to be a tiny, integral part of 'this great body that is humanity, the entire earth, the universe, or God.' (Stich 140)
If we consider the Void as an intangible force, which is unexplainable, yet is welled within us purely through our emotional response, then a portion of our understanding must still be attributed to God's providence.  For it is accepted in Christian terms, that God is in all things and so it must also be in the Void.  Klein's desire to aspire to create a new sensibility towards not just art, but life itself, to somehow find Eden are closely linked to his religious beginnings.

The Rosicrucian movement also involves close study of the Christian Bible. 'Rosicrucians are devout students of the Christian Bible, for they find therein many expressions of the early comprehension of God's great laws.  They are generally members of various churches of various denominations, for there is nothing in the teachings that would lead them from the church.' (302 Lewis)

For all that has been said of Yves Klein as master showman, shocker of society, shaman or charlatan.  I believe his pursuits were genuine, that his pursuits were towards a type of truth, a utopian view.
It is through pure colour that Klein materialized his sensory intuitions like destiny, colour is a reality in itself, it fixes the image of the world through the creator's consciousness of it.  Klein believed colour shocks us or irritates us, charms us or fascinates us.  Colour also moves us to reverie or meditation, it impregnates us.
All of Klein=s musings and pursuits had some sort of mystical or spiritual aspect to them.  In the end, any or all his disciplines regarding spiritualism were couched in the notion of one supreme being (God).  I believe Klein's need to acknowledge his success through Saint Rita's intercession accentuates this belief.

Klein's votive offering also accentuates his belief in the Trinity.  The number three is repeated three times within the piece overall.  Whether through the three pigments of colour, the three gold bars or his acknowledgement within the hymnal prayer, which acknowledges 'To God the Almighty Father in the name of the Son, Jesus Christ, in the name of the Holy Spirit . . .' (Klein/Restany 257), which was housed separate from the other two zones, yet integral to the offering.

'The series of necessary beings whose necessity is caused by another cannot possible go back to infinity . . . We must therefore posit something that is necessary per se - something that does not owe its necessity to anything else but which causes the necessity of other things.  And this everyone understands to be God.' (Aquinas 42)

1. Aquinas, Thomas Saint.  'The Existence of God Proven'.  Introduction to Philosophy Classical and Contemporary Reading.  2nd Ed. Perry,  John and Bratman, Michael.  Oxford University Press.  1993.

2. Galbreath, Robert. The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985.  Ed. Weisberger, Edward.  Los Angeles County Museum of Art Abbeville Press. Publishers. New York. 1986.

3. Lewis, Spencer H. Rosicrucian Questions and Answers.  The Rosicrucian Press, Ltd.  San Jose, California. 1929.

4. Restany, Pierre. Yves Klein, 1928-1962 A Retrospective.  Houston, Rice University Institute for the Arts; New York, The Arts Publisher. 1982.

5. Stich, Sidra.  Yves Klein. Ed. Simpson, Fronia and von Velsen, Nicola. Cantz Verlag. 1994.