Jef verheyen biography samples
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Jef Verheyen
Verheyen employed a sophisticated technique in which he built up paint in translucent layers, or glazes, to produce subtle gradations of colour. In adopting this method, Verheyen placed himself in the old-masterly tradition of Jan van Eyck, who perfected this same use of glazes in the fifteenth century.While the early Netherlandish artist used the glazing technique to create the illusion of depth and reproduce the reality of things in the painting with mimetic precision, Verheyen only represented the colours themselves, but his use of glazes disguised their materiality. The colours became visible by making invisible the fact that they consisted of tangible material, thereby allowing their intangible “essence”, to have its effect on the viewer.( 6 )The extreme smoothness of the painting surface also contributed to this dematerialisation.
To apply paint, Verheyen used a wide bristle brush or, according to Nic van Bruggen, “shredded nylon stockings”.( 7 ) He even avoi
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Jef Verheyen
1958:
In February, Verheyen is first in Basel and then in Milan (letters from Jef Verheyen to Ivo Michiels and to Dani Francq mentioning, among other things, the work Verheyen sold to Lucio Fontana [20 February 1958], a blue painting).
Roberto Crippa is in Belgium for the World’s Fair (April). At of Verheyen’s and Ivo Michiels’ request, he places a sculpture in the Belgian pavilion.
In Lausanne, Verheyen’s manifesto, Essentialisme (Essentialism) is accepted for publication in art actuel international, issue 1959 – 13.
Having played an active role in founding the G 58 group in Antwerp (in the Spring of 1958) and taken part in its first exhibitions, Verheyen breaks away from the group after the opening of his first show at the Hessenhuis.
November 1958: first exhibition at the Hessenhuis. Lucio Fontana buys L’air est plein de ta chaleur (The Air is Full of Your Warmth) shown there and in Milan, and gives him what Verheyen describes as a “splendid black
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Jef Verheyen
About the Artist
Jef Verheyen consistently marched to the beat of his own drum within the history of Flemish, Belgian and international abstract art from 1954 to 1984. Characteristic of Verheyen, is that despite having co-founded the innovative Antwerp Groep 58 in his younger years, he had already abandoned these ung experiments as early as 1960 to found his own New Flemish School. This not only testifies to Verheyen’s sharp critical mind but also to what Freddy De Vree described as follows in 2004: ‘He quickly behaved as though he were an outsider on the art en plats där en händelse inträffar ofta inom teater eller film of his time, even though what he really wanted was to be at its centre.’
A study of his archive should illuminate the motives behind Verheyen’s behaviour in general and his not unnoticed exit from G 58 in particular. It could be that Verheyen was less interested in the experiment as such (i.e. in the experiment as art for art’s sake) and was more interested in exploring the possi