Ensemble: Window on Infinity - Room 09
Photo: Christine Clinckx / M HKA
Van Gogh to Verheyen: seekers of light
In paintings such as Zwarte Zomer (Black Summer) and Permeke, Jef Verheyen paints his perception of the Flemish atmosphere, which is rather dark. Later in the 1960s, he travels to Brazil, Mexico, Tunisia, Spain, Italy and France in search of light, which is everywhere different. A northerner in search of southern light: Vincent van Gogh went on the same quest before him. In a letter written in Provence in 1889, Van Gogh writes to his brother about the southern light: ‘Perhaps my journey into the south will bear fruit, however, because the difference of the stronger light, the blue sky, teaches one to see, but especially and only if one looks at it for a long time. (…) one must first and gradually accustom one’s eyes to the different light.’ During his travels, Verheyen also writes in his letters about the enchantment of the light. ‘Everything shimmers here!’ He tries to render the essence of those impressions on canvas.
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Works
>Galerie Schoeller, Jef Verheyen, Galerie Bernard, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, • 0439 • Lichtstroom, 1962.Painting, matt lacquer on canvas, 100 x 66 cm.
>Galerie Bernard, Jef Verheyen, • 0432 • Espagne, 1962.Painting, matt lacquer on canvas, 98 x 63 cm each.
>Jef Verheyen, Axel Vervoordt, • 0166 • Untitled, 1962.Painting, matt lacquer on canvas, 75 x 45 cm.
>Jef Verheyen, Axel Vervoordt, Galerie Carrefour, • 0156 • Night and Day, 1964-1965.Painting, matt lacquer on canvas, 186 x 88 cm each, 194 x 192 cm with frame, diptyque / paravent.
>Jef Verheyen, • 0196 • Zwarte Zomer, 1965.Painting, matt lacquer on canvas, 195 x 195 cm, 198 x 198 cm with frame.
>Jef Verheyen, Portrait of Jef Verheyen in Belgian Pavilion at Biennale Venezia, 1970.Photography, diapositive.
>Jef Verheyen, Axel Vervoordt, • 0295 • Zonder titel (Hommage à Van Gogh), 1976.Painting, matt lacquer on canvas, 120 x 120 cm, 125 x 125 x 5,3 cm with frame.
>Jef Verheyen, • 0262 • L’Or – Aarde – Permeke (Gold – Earth – Permeke), 1976.Painting, matt lacquer on canvas, 130 x 130 cm.
>Jef Verheyen, Axel Vervoordt, Claire & Paul Bataille - Ibens, • 0478 • Urbino – Espace Idéal (Urbino – Ideal Space), 1978.Painting, matt lacquer on canvas, 110 x 177 cm.