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

© The Estate of Yves Klein c/o ADAGP, Paris, 2024 - Photo: Christine Clinckx / M HKA
Pigment pur, 1957
Private collection
Installation , Variable dimensions
Tray with pure pigment

Yves Klein first exhibited this work in May 1957.

Twelve rods are suspended from the ceiling

above a field of blue pigment. Like a painting

with no fixed form, the work unfolds into space.

Klein writes: ‘Pure pigment displayed on the floor

becomes a floor painting rather than a hanging

tableau.’ The colour becomes ‘as immaterial as

possible. The colour itself becomes the attraction.’

Jef Verheyen selects this work for the

Integratie 64 exhibition, which focuses on the

synthesis between the arts.