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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Magic Mirrors, 2019

Courtesy of the Artist

Sculpture , 220 x 110 x 1.2 cm

‘Magic Mirrors (Pink & Blue) is a diptych of panels, each consisting of three layers of glass. The central pane of each sculpture is broken into a myriad of pieces. Sandwiched between the two intact panes, it is firmly preserved in its fragile state, but when light hits the surface, each cracked joint reflects it at different angles, creating different shapes and colours. This change in colour is due to a dichroic polyester sheet that filters out precise wavelengths of light, limiting the range of visible colours. The light reflecting off the fragments of coloured glass as they pass through them creates a cascade of light, a myriad of iridescent coloured reflections that change according to the movements of the observer and to the light reflected on the sculptures. I use the properties of light, refraction, and reflection to explore different perspectives on colour. The instability and mutability of Magic Mirrors (Pink & Blue) questions the nature of art: a material articulation or the experiencing of its interaction with the world and oneself.’

Ann Veronica Janssens, 2023

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