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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Verloren Ruimte (Lost Space), 1965

Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, Antwerp

Installation , 120 cm ø

Lace, blue neon, wood

Away with paint. In the 1960s that is the slogan

of Guy Mees. This avant-garde artist exchanges

canvas and charcoal for industrially produced lace

and neon lights. Whether they are round, square or

triangular, these works all bear the enigmatic title

Verloren Ruimte (Lost Space). Just like Verheyen,

Mees plays with concepts such as space and

light. In 1959 they both spend the summer at the

Tempeliershof, an empty farm in Weert, where they

work and write together. For Verheyen, Mees is

‘the painter who showed me the solution’ and

questioned the definition of painting.

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