Ensemble: Window on Infinity - Room 03
Photo: Christine Clinckx / M HKA
Meditating on colour
Colour, light and texture: Jef Verheyen uses them to make us think about emptiness. He finds inspiration for this in East Asian thinking and in traditional Chinese artistic crafts. To paint with one colour (monochrome) or with the absence of colour (achrome)? After 1957 Verheyen ponders this question. His meeting with Piero Manzoni and Lucio Fontana in Milan at the end of 1958 increases his desire to experiment. Shortly after this he plans an Antwerp exhibition of international monochrome painters.
That project is abandoned. But in 1960 a similar exhibition is held in Leverkusen, Germany. Verheyen and the monochrome painters put themselves firmly on the map. Their ‘artless art’ offers an alternative to the refined touch of the Impressionists and the grand gesture of the Abstract Expressionists. For them, only the poetry of pure matter counts, of colour or absence of colour. Because, as Verheyen writes: ‘In a monochrome or achrome painting, light must be felt rather than seen.’
Works
>Jef Verheyen, • 0830 • Kom, 1955.Ceramics, glazed earthenware, 5,5 x 15 cm.
>Dani Franque, Kom, 1955.Ceramics, glazed earthenware, 20 x 34,5 cm.
>Jef Verheyen, • 0829 • Schaal, 1955.Ceramics, glazed earthenware, 2,5 x 22 x 7,5 cm.
>Jef Verheyen, Jef Verheyen with monochrome ceramic in Atelier 14, 1955.Photography, photograph.
>Piero Manzoni, Untitled (Achrome), 1957.Painting, folded burlap soaked in kaolin, 73 x 60 cm.
>Jef Verheyen, • 0028 • Espace Découpé - Witte Ruimte, 1957.Painting, paper, glue and casein paint on burlap, 65 x 81 cm.
>Gust Philippi, Two visitors looking at The Air is Full of your Warmth at the opening exhibition of G58 at the Hessenhuis, 1958.Photography, photograph.
>Jef Verheyen, Antonio & Marieda Boschi - Di Stefano, • 0828 • Untitled, 1958.Painting, oil paint on canvas, 82,5 x 100,5 cm.
>Hermann Goepfert, Weisses Strukturbild, 1958.Painting, papier-mâché and paint on canvas, 85 x 120 cm.
>Yves Klein, M 69, Monochrome blanc, 1958.Painting, pure pigment, synthetic resin and coating on glued canvas, nailed on plywood, 100 x 50 cm.
>Guy Vandenbranden, Untitled (voor Jef Verheyen), 1958.Painting, 60 x 60 cm.
>Günther Uecker, Weiss Horizontal, 1958.Painting, oil paint on fibreboard, 51.5 x 45 cm.
>Jef Verheyen, Lucio Fontana, • 0721 • L'air est plein de ta chaleur, 1958.Painting, oil paint on canvas, 64 x 53 cm.
>Jef Verheyen, • 0657 • Monochrome - Achrome I , 1958.Painting, oil paint on burlap, 92 x 73 cm.
>Axel Vervoordt, Jef Verheyen, • 0793 • Profondément le rouge de la folie pure, nulle tache, nul mouvement / M'enfondre dans l'espace perdu, 1959.Painting, oil paint on canvas, 64 x 79,7 cm, 65 x 80,5 cm with frame.
>Jef Verheyen, Piero Manzoni, Frank Philippi, Jef Verheyen and Piero Manzoni (right) in a restaurant in Milan, 1959.Photography, photograph (leica).
>Small cup of monochrome porcelain from China, early 7th century, Xing kiln.Ceramics, porcelain stoneware, 7,5 × 8,5 cm.
>Tea bowl, 12th century, Song dynasty, Jian kiln.Ceramics, stoneware, coloured with metal glaze, 5,5 × 12 cm.
>Chinese dream stone with poetic inscription: The snow and the moon reflect light back to each other, 19th century.Painting, chinese dali marble, highlighted with black ink, ornamental plate for chair or screen, 38 x 1 cm.
>Otto Piene, Untitled (Schwarze Sonne).Painting, oil and smoke on canvas, 30 x 40 cm, 41.5 x 51.5 cm with frame.