Jef Verheyen

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.

Jef Verheyen

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• 0156 • Night and Day, 1964-1965

Private Collection, France

Painting , 186 x 88 cm each, 194 x 192 cm with frame, diptyque / paravent

matt lacquer on canvas

Verheyen was an adherent of dialectics, a form of reasoning that uses argument and counter-argument to arrive at insight. He philosophised, for example, about the empty and the full, black and white, dark and light, local and universal, day and night...

This screen represents his thought strategy. Verheyen compares the eternal rhythm of day and night to the 'breath of life'.

References

Jef Verheyen 'Lux est Lex' / Freddy De Vree. - Wijnegem : Axel Vervoordt, 2004. - 160 p. : ill. ; 35 x 28 cm
Kontrasten 47/67 - Schilderkunst in België (België, Antwerpen). - [s.l.] : [s.n.], [s.a.]. - 263 p. : ill. ; 21,5 cm x 21,1 cm
Retrospectieve Jef Verheyen, 1932-1984 / Willy Van den Bussche & Léonore Verheyen. - Oostende/Brugge : Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst/Stichting Kunstboek, 1994. - 158 p. : ill. ; 30 x 24.5 cm

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