By fundamental or ‘essential’ I mean everything that is absolutely necessary—everything that cannot be left out—to define the color structure: the energy that prevails in the colors.  (Jef Verheyen)

The exhibition gegen den Himmel. against the sky is dedicated to supposedly simple and obvious: light, color, space, and their perception. For the first time, it brings together the monochrome paintings of Belgian artist Jef Verheyen (1932–1984) with the multimedia works of contemporary  artist Johanna von Monkiewitsch (b. 1979 in Rome, lives in Cologne). The work of Jef Verheyen is closely linked to the Museum Morsbroich’s exhibition activities in the early 1960s as well as the international ZERO movement that originated in the Rhineland. This dialogue with Johanna von Monkiewitsch’s site-specific light works, which are often based on ordinary, everyday situations, places Verheyen’s oeuvre in a contemporary context.

Despite their different backgrounds and approaches, both artists explore questions about the ephemeral, the immaterial, energy and space—and, in their consistent reduction to the essential, undermine our . widespread striving for more. What is necessary and what can be left out? How can we reveal the essential using as little means as possible? Is it possible to give form to the ephemeral and intangible? And how can emptiness be depicted through painting?

The exhibition gegen den Himmel. against the sky is realized in collaborative exchange with the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA). It follows as a “spin-off” of the exhibition Jef Verheyen: Window on Infinity (23/03/24–18/08/24, curated by Annelien De Troij and Adriaan Gonnissen) at the KMSKA with the M HKA in cooperation with the Jef Verheyen Archive.