Jef Verheyen

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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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(c)Jef Verheyen, photo: Jan Liégeois - Axel Vervoordt, Jef Verheyen Archive
• 0196 • Zwarte Zomer, 1965
Jef Verheyen Archive
Painting , 195 x 195 cm, 198 x 198 cm with frame
matt lacquer on canvas

In paintings such as Zwarte Zomer (Black Summer) and Permeke, Verheyen paints his perception of the Flemish atmosphere, which is rather dark. Later in the 1960s, he travels to Brazil, Mexico, Tunisia, Spain, Italy and France in search of light, which is everywhere different.

A northerner in search of southern light: Vincent van Gogh went on the same quest before him. In a letter written in Provence in 1889, Van Gogh says to his brother about the southern light:

‘… perhaps my journey into the south will bear fruit, however, because the difference of the stronger light, the blue sky, teaches one to see, but especially and only if one looks at it for a long time. (…) one must first and gradually accustom one’s eyes to the different light.’

During his travels, Verheyen also writes in his letters about the enchantment of the light. ‘Everything shimmers here!’ He tries to render the essence of those impressions on canvas. 

(source: KMSKA, 2024)

 

References

  • Exh. cat. Grosse Kunstausstellung München. Sonderausstellung: Kunst aus den Benelux-Ländern, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 1968.

  • Jef Verheyen : Retrospectieve / K.J. Geirlandt. - Brussel : Vereniging voor Tentoonstellingen van het Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, 1979. -  : ill. ; 29,5 x 21 cm

  • Zero Internationaal Antwerpen - Retrospectieve tentoonstelling / Gilberte Gepts. - Antwerpen : Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 1979. -  : ill. ; 20,9 cm x 20,9 cm

  • Belgische Kunst 1960-1970 / Andreas Becker & Toni Feldenkirchen. - Köln : Kölnischer Kunstverein, 1970. -  : ill. ; 29 cm x 18 cm

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