Experience

ANTWERP | KMSKA & M HKA present ‘Jef Verheyen, Window On Infinity’ exhibition from 23 March to 18 August 2024

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From 23 March to 18 August 2024, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp (RMFAA or KMSKA) and the Museum for Contemporary Art of Antwerp (M HKA) host the exhibition ‘Jef Verheyen, Window On Infinity. “So important to the European art world and yet relatively unknown in Belgium: Flemish artist Jef Verheyen (1932-1984) returns to Antwerp. Forty years after his death, the KMSKA presents the first museum solo exhibition of this illustrious modern master in his hometown. A first”, KMSKA says.

“‘Jef Verheyen, Window On Infinity’ closely follows the evolution of this modern master. We see how he moves from ceramic experiments to painting, constantly refining the medium. In light and dark, in form and color. New archive research reveals how Verheyen bridges the gap between tradition and innovation, between present and future. In search of the essence, in the infinite. Everything to make us look differently and see more. Let that be the exact motto of the KMSKA.”

“When you stand before a work by Verheyen, it seems as if particles, like clouds, softly drift past. All colors between black and white appear in elusive arcs of light and sunbows, rainbows and moonbows, sometimes in diamond shapes, sometimes in a composite composition. In bright colors, Verheyen paints homages to Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), kindred seekers of light.”

Other artists’ take

The curators, Adriaan Gonnissen (KMSKA) and Annelien De Troij (M HKA), have also invited contemporary artists to cast light on Verheyen’s role as a pioneer of a different way of looking at art. Installations by Ann Veronica Janssens, Kimsooja, Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen and Pieter Vermeersch will intensify visitors’ spatial and visual experience of the exhibition.

The exhibition is a collaborative project between the KMSKA and M HKA. This exhibition is the result of extensive research performed by M HKA in cooperation with the Jef Verheyen Archive.

Special care for people with colour blindness 

‘Jef Verheyen, Window On Infinity’  is about colour, light and shape. The KMSKA strives to allow everyone to enjoy the colours, light and shapes in Jef Verheyen’s paintings. “That is why we are launching a pilot project to offer colour blind visitors the opportunity to recognize more colors and experience them more intensely”, KMSKA says

They can borrow special glasses at the information desk, developed by the company EnChroma.

Important to know. These glasses do not work for everyone who is color blind. The EnChroma glasses are suitable for red-green color blindness. There are also different types and degrees of red-green color blindness. Depending on this, visitors experience more or less effect. It also takes a few minutes to process the new impressions.

Practical. The museum has a limited number of fit-over glasses available, which can be worn over your own glasses. If you want to test one out in the Jef Verheyen exhibition, you can go to the information desk during the duration of the exhibition. The fit-over glasses were made available to the museum by Optiek Casteur.

Who was Jef Verheyen?

Jef Jozef Verheyen was born in Itegem near Heist-op-den-Berg in the province of Antwerp on 6 July 1932. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and at the Higher Institute in painting, drawing and ceramics (with Olivier Strebelle, 1946-1954). At that institute he met his future wife Dani Franque.

In 1954 they opened a ceramics studio-shop together: L’atelier 14, opposite the Rubens House. From 1956 onwards they took part in various exhibitions and salons in Belgium with ceramics. 

Verheyen painted more and more and traveled to Milan, where he met Piero Manzoni, Roberto Crippa and Lucio Fontana. Verheyen was one of the co-founders of G-58. 

He published ‘Essentialism‘ and worked in Antwerp with, among others, Paul De Vree, Guy Vandenbranden and Engelbert Van Anderlecht on the ‘New Flemish School‘. 

With Van Anderlecht he painted a series of ten paintings: ‘Ni l’un ni l’autre‘. He met Günther Uecker at the Hessenhuis (which was not a gay dance club at the the time) and from the early 1960s he took part in numerous Zero exhibitions. Jef Verheyen worked with the members of Zero and played an important role as a contact person for the group and the artists in Belgium.

In 1974, Verheyen settled in the south of France with his family. There were retrospective exhibitions in Brussels and Geneva in Switzerland. In the early 1980s he published engravings with texts by Ivo Michiels and Guy Vaes.

Verheyen died in 1984 in Apt in the department of Vaucluse at the age of 51 after a heart attack on the tatami.

Jef Verheyen online

Verheyen may have passed away forty years ago, he is very much online. There is an official website with his biography, his oeuvre, his bibliography etc. He also has an Instagram account. 

Art and museums in Antwerp