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

(c)Jef Verheyen, photo: Axel Vervoordt - Jef Verheyen Archive
• 0793 • Profondément le rouge de la folie pure, nulle tache, nul mouvement / M'enfondre dans l'espace perdu, 1959
Axel Vervoordt Gallery
Painting , 64 x 79,7 cm, 65 x 80,5 cm with frame
Oil paint on canvas

Il pose sur le chevalet un petit tableau rouge, intégralement rouge, et qui doit ses différences tonales à la façon, dont le couteau à palette a disposé les couches de peinture. Ivo Michiels, Jef et moi restons figés dans la sourde autorité de ce rectangle qui grandit, grandit dans le cube blanc de l’atelier.

Guy Vaes, as quoted from Freddy De Vree's essay in Jef Verheyen Lux est Lex, 2004 

 

This early red work is exceptional as most of his dark monochrome works were mainly exploring the concept of 'Schwarz darstellen', proposed by Paul Klee, about depicting the colour black.