Jef Verheyen - Le peintre flamant

This book on the work of the most important Belgian ZERO artists Jef Verheyen (1932-84), was published to accompany the exhibition “Jef Verheyen and friends”, held at the Langen Foundation in Neuss (Germany) in 2011.The exhibition was curated by Mattijs Visser and Dirk Pörschmann as part of the Düsseldorf Quadriennale, in co-operation with the ZERO Foundation and the Vervoordt Foundation.

Jef Verheyen is known for his extensive explorations of the phenomena of light and colour. His connections to Düsseldorf and Germany and his amicable contact with Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, Yves Klein and other protagonists of ZERO, form the starting point of the exhibition and this book. It illustrates the works in the exhibition and shows many unpublished historical pictures from the Fotomuseum in Antwerp and from the personal archive of Léonore Verheyen, the artist’s daughter. It includes essays by Beate Kemfert, Tiziana Caianiello, Johan Pas, Francesca Pola Dirk Pörschmann, Jenny Trautwein and Mattijs Visser. The book also contains several interviews with Verheyen's friends, who describe their personal relationship with the artist.