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 - Window on Infinity

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Figures on the screen, 1956

Collection KMSKA, Antwerp

Painting , 113.5 x 143.5 cm

In 1957 Italian sculptor, ceramist and painter

Gianni Dova is working in Antwerp. He introduces

Verheyen to his Milanese gallery. Dova and Verheyen

influence each other’s style, composition and use of

colour. Like many of their contemporaries, they try

to come up with a poetic answer to the question:

What can art still mean after the Second World War?

Thanks to Dova, Verheyen meets Lucio Fontana

and Roberto Crippa. These new contacts mark the

beginning of Verheyen’s search for the inner and

the cosmic.

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