This major monograph from Hannibal Books offers the most comprehensive overview of Jef Verheyen (1932–1984), the Flemish painter who helped redefine European abstraction.
Annelien De Troij and Adriaan Gonnissen, eds. Jef Verheyen – Window on Infinity. Antwerp: Hannibal Books, 2024. Hardcover, 356 pp. 290 Ă— 290 Ă— 35 mm. Bound in pictorial boards. Text in English. Illustrated in color and black and white (quadrichromie). First edition.Â
A New copy. Presentation copy without shrink wrap. Attention: high shipping costs due to the books weight (2,5 kg)
Jef Verheyen – Window on Infinity (2024)
Jef Verheyen – Window on Infinity presents the most comprehensive monographic overview to date of Jef Verheyen (1932–1984), a central figure of the postwar European avant-garde. This 356-page volume features hundreds of full-color reproductions tracing Verheyen’s evolution from early ceramics to his mature monochromes.
The book shows how Verheyen (whom critics dubbed Le Peintre Flamand) brought painting to a “zero point” in the late 1950s through his innovative layering technique, where translucent veils of pigment create atmospheric, meditative fields.
Essays, archival notebooks, photographs, and letters provide insight into his pursuit of the infinite, bridging Flemish tradition, modernist abstraction, and Eastern philosophy. Window on Infinity is a great starting point for collectors, scholars, and enthusiasts of 20th-century conceptual painting.
About Jef Verheyen
Jef Verheyen (1932–1984) was a pioneering Belgian painter and leading figure in the Zero movement and postwar European avant-garde. His work, characterized by serene monochrome surfaces and a mastery of light, sought to transcend material form, evoking 'pure' perception.
After training as a ceramicist, Verheyen became associated with artists such as Lucio Fontana, Heinz Mack, and Otto Piene, contributing to a radical rethinking of painting as a contemplative, spatial experience.
Throughout his career, he pursued a synthesis of Flemish artistic tradition, modern abstraction, and Eastern philosophy, positioning himself as one of the most influential conceptual painters in postwar Europe.