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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©SABAM Belgium, 2024, Jan Liégeois on behalf of Axel Vervoordt Gallery

• 0478 • Urbino – Espace Idéal (Urbino – Ideal Space), 1978

Axel and May Vervoordt Foundation

Painting , 110 x 177 cm

matt lacquer on canvas

Verheyen is fascinated by the idea of an ideal space, a space with perfect proportions. The Renaissance painting of the ideal city – attributed at the time to Piero della Francesca – was a great source of inspiration for Verheyen. He described it as ‘one of the strongest impressions ever made on me, one of the most important paintings. The Ideal City is built on the principles of the Renaissance perspective. One has to have a very special mind to grasp the structure of this work’. The painting inspires Verheyen’s own visualisation of the Italian city of Urbino as an ideal space. Urbino has been renowned as la città ideale since the Renaissance.

References

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
Jef Verheyen 'Lux est Lex' / Freddy De Vree. - Wijnegem : Axel Vervoordt, 2004. - 160 p. : ill. ; 35 x 28 cm
In-Finitum, exh. cat., published by Axel Vervoordt, 2009.

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