Window on Infinity - Room 04

Ensemble

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

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About M HKA / Mission Statement

The M HKA is a museum for contemporary art, film and visual culture in its widest sense. It is an open place of encounter for art, artists and the public. The M HKA aspires to play a leading role in Flanders and to extend its international profile by building upon Antwerp's avant-garde tradition. The M HKA bridges the relationship between artistic questions and wider societal issues, between the international and the regional, artists and public, tradition and innovation, reflection and presentation. Central here is the museum's collection with its ongoing acquisitions, as well as related areas of management and research.

About M HKA Ensembles

The M HKA Ensembles represent our first steps towards initiating the public to today's art-related digital landscape. With the help of these new media, our aim is to offer our artworks a better and fuller array of support for their presentation and public understanding.