Jef Verheyen

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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. 

gegen den Himmel. against the sky

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© SABAM Belgium, 2024, Jan Liégeois on behalf of the Jef Verheyen Archive
• 0390 • Rêve de Möbius, 1962
Jef Verheyen Archive
Painting , 113.5 x 146 cm / 116 x 148.5 cm with frame
matt lacquer on canvas, perforated

Ivo Michiels wrote about the realization of Rêve de Möbius in his publication  Luister hoe dit beeld hoe die lijn hoe die kleur hoe dit vlak luister (Antwerp: Soethoudt, 1979), a collection of the artist's writings about art.

Collaborations are important to Jef Verheyen.

In 1962 he cements his friendship with Lucio

Fontana with this work. Verheyen paints the blue

background and Fontana adds the perforations as

a performance. This collaboration embodies their

shared views on the activation of space. ‘Fontana’s

spatialism drilled through the dimensions. His fifth

dimension broke the boundaries, he opened up

the path to infinity,’ writes Verheyen. The title of

this work is a reference to the endless Möbius strip.

This looped strip symbolises the harmony between

two artistic approaches and their shared dream of

infinite freedom.

References

  • Jef Verheyen, Le peintre flamant / Dirk Pörschmann & Tijs Visser. - Brussels : ASA Publishers, 2010. - 256 p. : ill. ; 23 x 23 cm

  • Walter Leblanc - Jef Verheyen : Dialogue with Light / Adrien Grimmeau & Claire Leblanc. - Brussel/Tielt : Éditions Racine/Lannoo, 2016. - 179 p. : ill. ; 27.5 x 26.6 cm

  • Phil Mertens, Pierre Baudson, Marie-Jeanne Chartrain-Hebbelinck, Francine-Claire Legrand (eds.), Italianen in België. Belgen in Italië, exh. cat., Europalia 1969 (12.09.1969-12.10.1969), Brussels: Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België, 1969.

  • Retrospectieve Jef Verheyen, 1932-1984 / Willy Van den Bussche & Léonore Verheyen. - Oostende/Brugge : Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst/Stichting Kunstboek, 1994. - 158 p. : ill. ; 30 x 24.5 cm

  • Jef Verheyen 'Lux est Lex' / Freddy De Vree. - Wijnegem : Axel Vervoordt, 2004. - 160 p. : ill. ; 35 x 28 cm

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