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

Untitled (For Jef), 1968
Formerly Jef Verheyen and Dani Franque collection, now Jef Verheyen Archive
Sculpture , 50,5 x 50,5 x 8 cm
Mirror glass and aluminium

A canvas with stainless steel reflectors, by Hermann

Goepfert. A composition with mirror surfaces, by

Christian Megert. A sculpted torsion form, by Walter

Leblanc. Unlike his colleagues, Verheyen does not

experiment with mirror, glass or steel. He paints in

oil on burlap and sticks to the two-dimensional

canvas. All these works nevertheless have one

thing in common: they are in constant dialogue

with the light. Verheyen and the ZERO artists invite

us not to stand still and stare, but rather to move

past the works. In that way we activate light and

space and become part of the work.