Genesis
In this exhibition and publication, we are delving deeper into the genesis of Verheyen’s art practice for the first time. During his early years as a ceramist – strongly inspired by the centuries-old tradition of monochromatic Chinese ceramics and painting – he discovered an essential part of his art that involves “the inner form being the outer form”. For Verheyen, artistic creation is the investigation of inner impulses, from the universal and primordial forces of nature to the unconscious essence of human existence. This fascination with universality and tradition is inter woven with his discovery of the potential of monochromatic painting. Both are unmistakably linked to Eastern artistic traditions such as the monochrome mode and philosophical movements such as Taoism, Zen and Chan Buddhism.
Flemish originality
The influences from the East did not eclipse Verheyen’s awareness of his own identity. The importance of his own personality can be seen in the epithet that Verheyen chose for himself. Le Peintre Flamant (“the Flemish/
flaming painter”) can be read as a wink to the fleeting nature of a burning fire (flamant), but also to his beloved identity as a Flemish painter (Flamand). Verheyen wanted first and foremost to build a bridge between the universal and the individual, the international and the local. In this way he connected his radically purified painting technique with the tradition of oil painting going back to Jan van Eyck, but also with the tabula rasa of an avant garde that resonated across borders.
New besides old
To lean into the idea of Verheyen as a builder of bridges between old and new, this exhibition reaches beyond the walls of its space. Because this pioneer of new art did not shut his eyes to the old masters. For this reason – and in accordance with the painter’s own wishful dreams –the famous Madonna Surrounded by Seraphim and Cherubim (ca. 1450) by Jean Fouquet will enter into dialogue with a painted diptych by Verheyen (Fig. 1–3). These paintings, entitled Lux est Lex, show warm red planes that, through a painted light refraction, form a high-contrast connection with the similarly shaped cold blue
FIG. 1
Jean Fouquet, Madonna omringd door serafijnen and cherubijnen (Madonna Surrounded by Seraphim and Cherubim), ca. 1450, oil on panel, 92 × 83.5 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, inv. 132
FIG. 2
Jef Verheyen, L’éternelle Renaissance. Aux amis Italiens (The eternal Renaissance. To Italian friends), colour study for Lux est Lex (Light is Law), 1974, pencil and ink on paper, 32 × 22 cm, Jef Verheyen Archive
FIG. 3
Jef Verheyen, Lux est Lex (Light is Law), 1974, matt lacquer on canvas, diptych, 173.5 × 173.5 cm each, Jef Verheyen Archive
From Expo 58 to Group 58
In the previous year, Verheyen himself cofounded the Antwerp innovation impetus from which G58 emerged. After his first solo exhibition in Milan in February 1958, he was allowed to contribute to Expo 58, the Brussels innovation momentum. Together with the painter Wim Van Gils, he was assigned the press pavilion, where they created a temporary installation with fluorescent structures and photographic material.98 The work of Verheyen’s Italian friend Roberto Crippa was exhibited in the Belgian pavilion. In the meantime, Verheyen and several artist friends from Antwerp were of the opinion that the city on the Scheldt should forge links with the innovation movement in Brussels. Consequently, Verheyen became one of the founders of G58, a group of young artists who joined forces to draw attention to a contemporary artistic programme in Antwerp. While waiting for a permanent building, Mayor Lode Craeybeckx granted them the use of the castle in the Middelheim Park. The first G58 exhibitions were held there between May and October 1958, with alternating groups of four or five artists. Verheyen participated in the fifth group exhibition together with Vic Estercam, Paul Bervoets and Walter Vanermen. He exhibited his first monochrome and achrome experiments. Callewaert described them in a review, “And my preference always goes out to these spontaneous, sometimes very poetic sketches, where the inspiration is not killed by endless finessing, and which sometimes contain a floating feeling and a diffused light. Alongside wide-ranging variations on the same theme – a semicircle, a gentle arc, floating or draped in space – Verheyen exhibits a curious monochrome painting entirely in white, which derives its entire impact from the relief of the paint and from the effect of light.”99 (see p. 104) The critic Brice Aubusson in turn highlighted “some very thoughtful works, with sometimes scholarly colouristic research” and was particularly excited about “this large dark canvas in which a reluctant clarity slumbers”.100 Verheyen’s involvement with G58 was shortlived, however. After the group moved to the attic of the Hessenhuis, Verheyen distanced himself from the “officialisation” of the group. He no longer felt affinity with its artistic ideals and values.101 When the first exhibition in this 16th-century warehouse opened on 29 November 1958, he was still in Milan, where his second solo exhibition at Galleria Pater had opened on 6 November. Although he was not an official member and his name is not in the accompanying publication, one of his works was
nonetheless exhibited at that exhibition: L’air est plein de ta chaleur (The Air is Full of your Warmth). This bichrome red work with a dark floating demi-circle was included thanks to the tireless diligence of Dani Franque and Ivo Michiels, who selected and installed this work at the Hessenhuis (Fig. 27, 29) 102 The Air is Full of your Warmth was acquired by Fontana and is still part of the collection of the Fondazione Lucio Fontana today.103
After the young vanguard of Antwerp descended upon the Hessenhuis, the desire to establish international connections grew rapidly. Verheyen’s plan for an exhibition on European monochrome painting was put on the back burner in favour of the organisation of a largescale exhibition at the G58 Hessenhuis.104
Together with Pol Bury and Jean Tinguely, Marc Callewaert and Paul Van Hoeydonck brought artists together to participate in Vision in Motion / Motion in Vision 105 The correspondence between Klein, Tinguely and Verheyen shows that their original enthusiasm for Verheyen’s exhibition idea swivelled to reluctance. Klein and Tinguely ultimately chose to commit only to Vision in Motion. 106
In the context of this essay, it is interesting to note the alternative exhibition title that was circulating: De Statische Beweging 107 It shows how the content focus was shifting too. Painting had to make way for kinetic art. Hence Verheyen and his Milanese friends Fontana and Manzoni were no longer involved in the project. Their absence did not prevent Vision in Motion from being a success and it is still on record as the first important ZERO event in Antwerp.108 The event was instrumental in laying the foundation for kinetic exhibitions such as Bewogen Beweging in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, in 1961.109
Verheyen was disappointed and, what’s more, his vision on artistic innovation also diverged from Vision in Motion, “It is a pity that the Rot –Piene – Klein – Uecker exhibition was so poorly understood here. […] The clearest proof of this is the title they gave to this exhibition: LE MOUVEMENT. Apart from Tinguely, whose work is still static despite its movement, there was little movement. Their works are rather examples of static.”110 For the first time, the exhibition highlights the division between Verheyen as a persistent painter and the other neo-avantgardists who want to leave the canvas and explore the potential of other media.
The Milanese momentum once again shows that Verheyen – perhaps in contrast to some of
FIG. 27
Two visitors looking at L’air est plein de ta chaleur (The Air is Full of your Warmth) at the opening exhibition of G58 at the Hessenhuis, photo Gust Philippi
FIG. 28
Invitation to the exhibition G58 – Walter Vanermen – Jef Verheyen –Vic Estercam – Pol Bervoets in Middelheim Castle, Antwerp
FIG. 29
Jef Verheyen, L’air est plein de ta chaleur (The Air is Full of your Warmth), 1958, oil on canvas, 64 × 53 cm, Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan, inv. 84
For him, “Panchrome” meant as much as making light paintings in which artist and viewer can think of all the crystal-clear colours at the same time, without actually having painted them all. His anti-Mondrianism was provocative but not seriously meant to be disparaging. After all, Verheyen purposefully renamed his Hommage to Monet to Hommage à Mondriaan – Monet (1970), possibly because of the geometric structure of the artwork. This would indicate that Verheyen was well aware that both Monet’s preoccupation with light and clear colours and Mondrian’s ideological abstraction through esoteric knowledge were modern breakthroughs on which he was able to build in his light paintings. His great appreciation for the constructivist Jozef Peeters, who was a pioneer of abstract, theosophically inspired art in Antwerp during the
first interbellum years, must also be understood in this way (Fig. 49, 50).63 In short, Verheyen both bridged and personalised many lessons of his predecessors.
Finally, in the spirit of this treatise on predecessors, the rather playful question may also be asked whether Verheyen’s light can be associated with the later work of the Ostend artist James Ensor (Fig. 51, 52). Although Verheyen never mentioned any knowledge of this late work, he did consider Ensor, for example in the context of his New Flemish School, as a guiding light for modernism in Flanders. Until Ensor came across Monet’s work at the Les XX salon in 1886, he had ignored the retinal art of the Impressionists. And following on from his most well-known and imaginative phase, the one with the brightly coloured mask paintings, he developed – starting
FIG. 48 Piet Mondrian, Compositie met groot rood vlak, geel, zwart, grijs en blauw (Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Grey, and Blue), 1921, oil on canvas, 59.5 × 59.5 cm, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, inv. 0333329
FIG. 49
Jozef Peeters, untitled, 1958, after a schematic drawing from 1924, oil on canvas, 60 × 47 cm, formerly Paul De Vree collection, private collection
FIG. 50
Jozef Peeters, Schematische tekening (Schematic Drawing), 1924, pencil and colour chalk on paper, 30.3 × 23 cm, private collection
lyrique (Lyrical Construction), 1956–1958,
Pamphlet with the Nieuwe vlaamse school (New Flemish School) manifesto (1959), written bilingually by Jef Verheyen and Paul De Vree in 1960, 35.5 × 44 cm, Jef Verheyen Archive. The signatories are Mark Claus, Herman Denkens, Jan Dries, Vic Gentils, Jef Kersting, Nic Klerks, Guy Mees, Englebert Van Anderlecht, Guy Vandenbranden, Wim (Wannes) Van de Velde and Jef Verheyen
Untitled, 1961, smoke drawing on paper, 73 × 55 cm, private collection
Untitled, 1961, smoke drawing on paper, 70 × 53 cm, Frédéric de Goldschmidt collection
Untitled, 1961, smoke drawing on paper, 48 × 60 cm, Bernhard & Pascale Liechti collection
Die vlammen dansen (The Dancing Flames), 1961, smoke drawing on paper, 48 × 60 cm, Bernhard & Pascale Liechti collection
Untitled, 1961, smoke drawing on paper, 70 × 52 cm, Jef Verheyen Archive
Piero Manzoni, Linea (Line), 1961, smoke drawing on paper, 41.5 × 58.5 cm, Frédéric de Goldschmidt collection
Jef Verheyen and Paul De Vree, Zonnebogen (Sunbows), 1963, portfolio with serigraphs and poetry on Steinbach paper, 50 × 50 cm, edition of 50
“Colour is rhythm. Its reflected vibrations have a rhythmic effect on the retina that we learn to classify or recognise by the interval. That’s why it’s so terribly hard to feel only one colour. We feel colour as time. We do not see colour but feel it before we see it. Seeing is feeling with the eyes.”
Concetto spaziale: IL TEMPO E LO SPAZIO29 , had to be dismantled after the exhibition due to its dimensions and has not been preserved (Fig. 60). In March 1965 Fontana exhibited with Hermann Goepfert and Verheyen in Berlin and Frankfurt, and together the three artists realised the work Untitled (Kinetic Reflector), which consisted of a reflector by Goepfert in front of a monochrome painting by Verheyen that was slashed according to Fontana’s instructions.30 Finally, in 1967, shortly before his death, Fontana wrote a second text for Verheyen in the Frankfurt magazine Egoist, which published a monograph on the artist with contributions from several comrades-in-arms. He repeated there his conviction that his deep bond with Verheyen was based on openness and on doubt about everything that was considered certain, “I have been friends with Jef since the day we met, ten years ago. Ten years of brotherly friendship and
mutual esteem. Today Jef is still as insecure and anxious about his art as he was ten years ago, but I have seen his steady development, and I am convinced that he will continue with the same restlessness and insecurity on which all true art is based – Lucio Fontana.”31
Monochrome vs. kinetic art
Until 1959, the geometric structuring of the planes in Verheyen’s paintings remained subtle, as a counterweight to the art informel that had continued to grow internationally. In the late 1950s, artists in various European countries shared the belief that art informel had become depleted, but opinions varied wildly as to which direction art should take now. Models were the readymades (as in nouveau réalisme), the chance principle (introduced by John Cage), the assemblage (as with Robert Rauschenberg) and finally the monochrome (with Yves Klein and
FIG. 60 Installation view with Lucio Fontana’s Le temps et l’espace (Time and Space) (1964) in ’t Fortje in Deurne; the perforated sculpture is part of Integratie 64, an exhibition about the synthesis between art, architecture and technology, that took place in Antwerp and Frankfurt am Main and was organised by Jef Verheyen, Paul De Vree and Renaat Braem; photo Gerald Dauphin
FIG. 61
Jef Verheyen, untitled, 1958, oil on canvas, 113 × 150.50 cm, Museo del Novecento, Boschi Di Stefano collection, Milan, inv. 1126
Piero Manzoni as guiding lights). Various artistic groups emerged in Belgium, all wanting to distance themselves from the provincialism of the official art, such as was exhibited and awarded at the annual Salons. An example of this was the literary-artistic magazine Edda, edited by Jacques Lacomblez, in which a premonochrome painting by Verheyen was reproduced in 1958 (Fig. 61) 32 In the table of contents we see the names of representatives of Parisian post-surrealism of the group Phases and former Cobra members alongside the poets Francis Ponge, Marcel Broodthaers and Edoardo Sanguineti. In similar fashion, various groups were mingling at meeting places in other countries, such as the ceramics
studio in the Ligurian village of Albisola Mare, where Asger Jorn and his Situationist friends met Giuseppe Pinot-Gallizio, Wifredo Lam, Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni and Jef Verheyen.33 The impressions he gathered in Milan strengthened Verheyen in his efforts to focus primarily on the monochrome. The most direct encouragement came from Manzoni, who arrived at the vernissage of Verheyen’s second exhibition at Pater in November 1958 with white paintings under his arm. While still in Milan, Verheyen then wrote the manifesto Essentialisme (Essentialism), which primarily focused on the term achrome, which he had adopted from Manzoni (see pp. 102, 327)
COLOPHON
This publication accompanies the Jef Verheyen. Window on Infinity exhibition at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) from 23 March to 18 August 2024.
The publication and exhibition are the result of a close collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA), Flemish Centre for Art Archives (CKV) and Jef Verheyen Archive.
KMSKA Chairman
Luk Lemmens
M HKA Chairman
Herman De Bode
KMSKA Managing Director
Carmen Willems
M HKA General and Artistic Director
Bart De Baere
Exhibition curators
Annelien De Troij (M HKA) Adriaan Gonnissen (KMSKA)
Publications manager Frédéric Jonckheere (KMSKA)
Editing of this publication
Annelien De Troij (M HKA) Adriaan Gonnissen (KMSKA)
Essays
Roel Arkesteijn
Albert Baronian
Bart De Baere
Annelien De Troij
Adriaan Gonnissen
Dieter Schwarz
Carmen Willems
Thekla Zell
Contributing artists
Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen
Ann Veronica Janssens
Kimsooja
Pieter Vermeersch
Dutch-English translation and editing
Elise Reynolds
Research and archive work
Annelien De Troij, Jef Verheyen Archive
Digitalisation
M HKA / Flemish Centre for Art Archives (CKV)
Image research
Madeleine ter Kuile (KMSKA)
Eline Wellens (KMSKA)
Image processing
Pascal Van den Abbeele
Hannibal Books project management
Hadewych Van den Bossche
Design Thomas Soete
Printing die Keure, Bruges, Belgium
Binding
Boekbinderij Abbringh, Groningen, The Netherlands
Publisher Gautier Platteau
© Hannibal Books, M HKA, KMSKA, Jef Verheyen Archive, 2024
www.hannibalbooks.be
www.muhka.be http://jefverheyen.ensembles.org www.kmska.be
ISBN 978 94 6494 113 5 D/2024/11922/23 NUR 642
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders for all texts, photographs and reproductions. If, however, you feel that you have inadvertently been overlooked, please contact the publishers.
Cover image
Jef Verheyen, untitled (Homage to Van Gogh), 1976, matt lacquer on canvas, 125 × 125 cm, private collection
The exhibition at the KMSKA is possible thanks to the support of exhibition partners
With special thanks to
Silvia Ardemagni, Roel Arkesteijn, Carla Arocha, Marilou Barbanti, Albert Baronian, Chiara Battezatti, Luc Beckstedde, Evi Bert, Lotte Bode, Sander Bortier, Bettina Bouttens, Pascale Brant, Koen Brams, Brecht Callewaert, Annelies Castelein, Guido Ceuppens, Goeun Choi, Jaeho Chong, Bart Cornel, Eddy Dankers, Hilde Daem, Kurt De Boodt, Frédéric de Goldschmidt, Luc Delagaye, Ludwig De Meersman, Lutgart De Meyer, Jan De Vree, Dierk Dierking, Anne-Sophie Dusselier, Suzy Embo, Niki Faes, Jeremy Foqué, Helena Vieira Gomes, Wim Hautekeete, Frank Heirman, Colin Huizing, Frederika Huys, Kyoungeun Hwang, Ann Veronica Janssens, Kimsooja, Beate Kemfert, Lara Kinds, Barbara Könches, Robert Lauwers, Anna Lenz, Georg Lenz, Thomas Leysen, Bernhard Liechti, Pascale Liechti, Jan Liégeois, Nele Luyts, Federica Mantoan, Bruno Matthys, Christian Megert, Franziska Megert, Valeria Morandi, Cel Overberghe, Johan Pas, Iris Paschalidis, Nikita Philippi, Francesca Pola, Paweł Polit, Jason Poirier dit Caulier, Dirk Pörschmann, Adriaan Raemdonck, María Inés Rodríguez, Frederik Roggeman, Jan Rombouts, François Roulin, Bjorn Scherlippens, Ulrike Schmitt-Voigts, Hubertus Schoeller, Stéphane Schraenen, Caspar Schübbe, Dieter Schwarz, Dominique Stroobant, Jan Stuyck, Joris Tas, Roberta Tenconi, Louis Thelier, Christine Uecker, Jacob Uecker, Günther Uecker, Camiel Van Breedam, Jörg van den Berg, Emmanuel Vandeputte, Jessy Van de Velde, Ronny Van de Velde, Sofie Van de Velde, Toon Van Dijck, Kathy Vanhout, Yoeri Vanlangendonck, Dennis Van Mol, Frieda Verhees, Eva Vervacke, Maria Villa, Tijs Visser, Olaf Verheyen, Thilbert Verheyen, Pieter Vermeersch, Boris Vervoordt, Axel Vervoordt, May Vervoordt, Edith Wahlandt, Oliver Wolleh, Thekla Zell and Goedele Zwaenepoel
And all of the staff of KMSKA and M HKA
The exhibition at the KMSKA will be followed by a sequel at the Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen (DE), gegen den Himmel. contre le ciel. Jef Verheyen | Johanna von Monkiewitsch, from 15 September 2024 to 23 February 2025.
and many others