Horizonnen in atelier 1982

JCJ Vanderheyden’s Horizonnen in atelier is an exploration of space, light, and perception within the artist’s studio. Look at how Vanderheyden layers these rectangular forms of blues, whites, and greys over a black background. Imagine the artist carefully placing each element, considering their relationship to one another and to the whole. What's he thinking, moving these blocks of color around like pieces of a puzzle? I see Vanderheyden wrestling with flatness and depth; it’s like he's trying to flatten the world into shapes. The textures and tones he uses give a visual experience that is quite interesting. Vanderheyden, like many artists, is in conversation with his predecessors and contemporaries, like Mondrian. It's as though he is trying to find new ways to portray space and dimension. Painting is an ongoing experiment, a process of trial, error, and discovery. And just like that, we can see in this work how artists inspire one another across time.