• 0028 • Espace Découpé - Witte Ruimte
1957
Painting, 65 x 81 cm.
Materials: Paper, glue and casein paint on burlap
Collection: Jef Verheyen Archive.
In Milan Verheyen expands his international network. When he exhibits at the Galleria Pater in 1958, Piero Manzoni walks in carrying white paintings. Their encounter further stimulates Verheyen’s musings about monochromy and achromy. It is during this period that he writes his manifesto Essentialisme (Essentialism). His theories are closely related to those of artists such as Günther Uecker, Otto Piene, Hermann Goepfert, Lucio Fontana and Yves Klein. The latter, for example, initially works in achrome white before pursuing his famous blue pigment. In letters, Klein and Verheyen debate the invention and objectives of monochrome and achrome painting.