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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(c)image: M HKA

Zonder titel, 1958

Private Collection, Belgium

Painting , 100 x 81 cm

oilpaint/jute

In 1956, after several years of experimenting with ceramics, Jef Verheyen again returns to painting. His new abstract work has a sculptural character, being executed in translucent hues that point toward the subtle differences in tone of his later monochrome work. The effect is akin to the desired rough structure of his final ceramic object, white and unglazed, closer to the origin of the material. There is no evocation of landscape or architecture, rather comparable to a moment in a philosophic quest. Then, and later, Verheyen was extremely fascinated by the pre-Socratic philosophers.

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