The Belgian ZERO artist Jef Verheyen (1932-1984) became known as the painter of light streams and colour spectra. He experimented not only with light, but also with movement and the invisible as means to evoke natural mechanisms and to reveal universal interrelationships between human beings and the surrounding world. He used geometric principles – his passion for geometry was born out of his interest in mathematics and (Greek) philosophy – as the basis for harmony. Verheyen never gave up on traditional media and materials such as the canvas, paint, and brushes to search for the essence of our nature. 

Günther Uecker

(c)Günther Uecker
Umrahmen, 1972
Lenz Schönberg collection, Tyrol
Sculpture , 80 x 80 cm
Nails on woorden frame

Like Verheyen, Uecker frames infinity. But Instead of the polished metal of Verheyen’s Le Vide (The Void) he uses nails and wood. With those crude, everyday materials he creates an interplay of light and movement. Uecker presents these works in 1959, in the Vision in Motion / Motion in Vision exhibition in Antwerp. There, in the attic of the Hessenhuis, he gets to know Verheyen.

Net als Verheyen maakt Uecker een frame rond het oneindige. In tegenstelling tot het strak gepolijste metaal van Verheyens Le Vide gebruikt hij hout en nagels. Met dat ruwe, alledaagse materiaal bevrijdt hij een spel van licht en beweging. Uecker toont ze in 1959 in het Antwerpse Hessenhuis op de tentoonstelling Vision in Motion / Motion in Vision. Daar leert hij Verheyen kennen.