Ensemble: Window on Infinity - Room 04
Photo: Christine Clinckx / M HKA
Non-plastic painting
Jef Verheyen explores the canvas as an experience space. He describes his style as ‘non-plastic painting’. Thanks to the translucent layers of paint he applies one above the other, it is as if he is painting with air. The brushstrokes are barely visible in his atmospheric landscapes. In these dark, hazy environments, a cosmic silence predominates. Vibrations seem to set the spaces in static motion. Verheyen’s technique of building up paint in translucent layers is centuries old. Jan van Eyck applied it in in his oil paintings in the fifteenth century. Le Peintre Flamant aims to refine the technique in dematerialised ‘portraits’ of dark and light.
‘When I first exhibited in Milan and told visitors that I came from the same country as Van Eyck, Memling, Van der Weyden, Van der Goes and Rubens, they were astonished. To my Italian friends and acquaintances I was instantly Jef Verheyen, “un giovane pittore fiammingo”. In my work they recognised the continuation of what they find typical of la pittura fiamminga: light and space.’
Jef Verheyen, ca. 1970
Media
>Installation view of ‘Jef Verheyen. Window on Infinity’ at KMSKA, in collaboration with M HKA and Jef Verheyen Archive, 2024.
>Installation view of ‘Jef Verheyen. Window on Infinity’ at KMSKA, in collaboration with M HKA and Jef Verheyen Archive, 2024.
Works
>Jef Verheyen, Copy of Les van Eyck (ed. Henri Hymans, 1923) from the artist’s library, 1923.Book, ink on paper.
>Jef Verheyen, Copy of The Aztecs of Mexico (ed. George C. Vaillant, 1955) from the artist’s library, 1955.Book, ink on paper.
>Jef Verheyen, Artist's notes 'La peinture n'est ni la pensée ni le sentiment, mais le sentiment d'une pensée', 1957.Text, pencil and ink on paper, 2 sides.
>Frank Philippi, Jef Verheyen, Jef Verheyen by the window, Rubensstraat, Antwerp, 1958.Photography, photograph.
>Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, 1958.Ceramics, 17.8 x 14.5 x 14.5 cm.
No image
>Jef Verheyen, Paul De Vree, 'Het Manifest der Zeven' - preparatory notes for the New Flemish School, 1959.Text, ink on paper, 1 page .
>Jef Verheyen, Guy Mees, Guy Mees (left) and Jef Verheyen in the Tempeliershof in Weert, where they spent the summer together, painting and writing, 1959.Photography, photograph.
>Jef Verheyen, Galleria d'arte del Grattacielo, Ivo Michiels, Jef Verheyen, 1959.Invitation Card, ink on paper.
>Jef Verheyen, Preparatory notes for the publication 'Pour une peinture non plastique', 1959.Text, ink on paper, 10 sides.
>Jef Verheyen, Annotated study sketch by Jef Verheyen about “diminishing light is increasing darkness”, 1959.Sketch, ink on paper, 2 sides.
>Notebook 'Contre le rien Pour le tout', 1959-1960.Book, ink in notebook, 22,5 x 15,5 cm.
>Jef Verheyen, Paul De Vree, Pamphlet with the bilingual manifesto 'New Flemish School' (1959), 1960.Text, ink on paper.
>Frank Philippi, Jef Verheyen, Jef Verheyen in front of his painting 'Zwarte Ruimte', 1960.Photography, photograph.
No image
>Jef Verheyen, Invitation to the exhibition Nieuwe Europese School in Hessenhuis, Antwerp, 1960.Invitation Card, ink on paper.
>Englebert Van Anderlecht, Jef Verheyen, Letter from Englebert Van Anderlecht to Jef Verheyen about their trip to Milan (9 March 1960), 1960.Letter, ink on paper, 1 page.
>Publication of the exhibition Monochrome Malerei, curated by Udo Kultermann, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, 1960.Series, ink on paper.
>Galerie Bernard, Jef Verheyen, Publication of the exhibition 'Peintures monochromes' in Galerie Bernard, Grenchen, 1960.Book, ink on paper.
>Frank Philippi, Jef Verheyen, Englebert Van Anderlecht, Guy Vaes, Jef Verheyen and Englebert Van Anderlecht (right) working together on their joint series of paintings 'The One and the Other – Neither One Nor the Other', 1960.Photography, photographic print.
>Ad Reinhardt, Jef Verheyen, Francesco Lo Savio, Museum Morsbroich, Udo Kultermann, Poster for the 'Ad Reinhardt, New York / Francesco Lo Savio, Rom / Jef Verheyen, Antwerpen' exhibition in Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, 1961.Poster, ink on paper, 84 x 59,5 cm .
>Jef Verheyen, Francesco Lo Savio, Ad Reinhardt, Ad Reinhardt, Francesco Lo Savio, Jef Verheyen, 1961.Book, ink on paper.
>Jef Verheyen, Galerie Bernard, Invitation to the exhibition 'Les peintures essentielles' in Galerie Bernard, Grenchen, 1961.Invitation Card, ink on paper.
>Lucio Fontana, Jef Verheyen, Filip Tas, Louis Bogaerts, Lucio Fontana (left) and Jef Verheyen posing before their collaborative work 'Le Jour' at the home of the collector Louis Bogaerts, Knokke, 12 November 1962, 1962.Photography, photograph.
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>Lucio Fontana, Jef Verheyen, Publication of the exhibition 'Ceramiche di Fontana' in Galleria Pater, Milan, 1962.Book, ink on paper.
>Jef Verheyen, Publication of the exhibition 'Nouvelles recherches flamandes' at Musée Rath, Geneva, 1965.Book, ink on paper.
>Jef Verheyen, Copy of Philosophes taoïstes (ed. Gallimard, 1980) from the artist’s library, 1980.Book, ink on paper.
>Jef Verheyen, Lucio Fontana, Postcard from Lucio Fontana in Paris to Jef Verheyen, 1959.Letter, ink on postcard.
>Jef Verheyen, Artist’s sketch drawing 'Dimensie als kleur, kleur als materiaal, materiaal als dimensie - Ceci n'est pas une peinture'.Text, ink on paper, 2 sides.
>Jef Verheyen, Notes about the etymology of Le Peintre Flamant, the selfappointed nickname of Jef Verheyen.Text, ink on paper, 5 sides.