Jef Verheyen, Silence of Light

Jef Verheyen’s Silence of Light features early paintings from the 1950s and 1960s in which Verheyen (1932-1984) explored the essence of light and space, as well as previously unreleased paintings from the 1970s in which Verheyen transformed light into a subtle vibration, offering a glimpse of infinity.

Jef Verheyen (1932 -1984, Flanders, Belgium) devoted his artistic practice to exploring the essence of light and space. Although proudly rooted in the Flemish tradition, throughout his career he sought an international artistic dialogue, forging close relationships with the leading figures of the ZERO movement: Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni in Milan, Yves Klein in Paris, and Günther Uecker, Heinz Mack, and Christian Megert in Düsseldorf. From the late 1950s onwards, Verheyen participated in major international exhibitions, positioning himself at the forefront of post-war European abstraction.

As the author of the Essentialism manifesto and founder of The New Flemish School in 1959, Verheyen pursued an art of purity, silence, and spirituality. His early training as a ceramicist cultivated a fascination with layered colour, translucent glazes, and the subtle creation of depth. His engagement with Eastern philosophy inspired a search for the “all-encompassing whole” or het vol-ledige, beyond visible reality.

Verheyen’s painterly language evolved from expressive explorations of form and colour toward increasingly refined monochrome compositions, later progressing into achrome and panchrome painting, and later including delicate geometric structures. Born with a visual handicap, he believed one should “feel” instead of see with the eyes. Guided by the laws of nature, mathematics, and philosophy, he transformed light into his primary artistic medium—not to represent the visible world, but to evoke contemplation, stillness, and inner experience.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Verheyen travelled extensively abroad in search of different qualities of light. In 1974, he settled with his family in France’s Provence region, where the intensity of light profoundly influenced his work. A decade later, his life was cut tragically short by a sudden death on the judo mat.

Following the landmark retrospective at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) in 2024, this exhibition—presented in close collaboration with the Jef Verheyen Archive—reveals for the first time a remarkable selection of previously unseen works from the artist’s estate, offering a rare and intimate perspective on one of Europe’s most poetic painters of light.