Windows on Infinity by Jef Verheyen

Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of his death, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) presents until 18 August Window on Infinity the first solo museum exhibition of the Flemish artist Jef Verheyen in his hometown .
An exhibition almost due to one of the most interesting contemporary Flemish artists (who died in his early 50s on the tatami during a judo exercise) the one organised by the KMSKA.

Folder Fille Roelants, Jef Verheyen

Window on Infinity focuses primarily on Verheyen's conceptual nature and his role as a bridge-builder between modern and conceptual art, and especially his enthusiastic approach to creating European and international artistic interactions as a whole. Often cited as a master of the modern avant-garde, Jef Verheyen (1932-1984) worked in the nucleus of an international network centred on ZERO artists, and is particularly important for his fascinating interaction between light and dark, form and colour. In the exhibition, the experimental research of his representation of the void is not only placed in dialogue with the works of his predecessors and contemporaries, but also emphasises his relations with the Italian art scene, his trips to Milan (where he met Piero Manzoni, Roberto Crippa and Lucio Fontana) and his participation in the 1970s at the Venice Biennale with ten works in the Belgian pavilion.

The Diamant, Jef Verheyen

The exhibition begins with stories about Verheyen's origins as a ceramist - inspired by Picasso - as a figurative painter and as a creator of cosmic paintings, drawing inspiration not only from artistic models such as Paul Klee and Jozef Peeters, but also from Eastern philosophy and - more generally - non-Western ideas. For this reason, the works are presented interspersed with studio views, photographs of artists at work, sketchbooks and manuscripts. The result is an artistic journey in search of both historical and 'universal' truths, beyond that of the purely aesthetic experience of his work.In conversation with curator Annelien De Troij, she reveals that: "Jef Verheyen is, together with Piero Manzoni and Yves Klein, a true pioneer of monochrome painting. As a ceramist, he developed a fascination for the monochrome layers typical of traditional Chinese ceramics. Only later did he adopt the subtle effect of using monochrome pigments one on top of the other in his paintings.

After meeting Lucio Fontana in Milan in 1958, he began planning an international exhibition on monochrome and achromatic painting in Antwerp, which unfortunately never took place, but we know from his correspondence that he intended to invite Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni, Jean Tinguely, Enrico Castellani and Guy Vandenbranden.

L’air est plein de ta chaleur, Jef Verheyen

Verheyen's works have something hypnotic about them, they give the feeling of staring into the void or into infinity and the artist is able to involve the viewer in a participatory manner with a highly contemporary approach. Adriaan Gonnissen, curator of modern art at the KMSKA, adds: 'He was a unique artist who brilliantly mixed the renewal of the international avant-garde with the traditions of Flemish painting, achieving an enormous impact that changed the art world.