JCJ Vanderheyden

Estate of the artist

Gallery Nouvelles Images, The Hague

Acquired from the above in 2015 by the present owner

The Hague, Gallery Nouvelles Images, JCJ Vanderheyden & Friends, 12 October 2013 - 30 November 2013, n.n.,n.p.

• A monumental example of the artist's seminal late-career exploration of light, perception, and the horizon line.
• Features the artist's signature monochromatic blue palette, evoking vast atmospheric space.
• Executed on an unconventional, trapezoidal canvas, challenging traditional pictorial boundaries.

Horizon in Blue Space is a powerful, meditative work that immediately draws the viewer into JCJ Vanderheyden’s profound investigation of infinity, color and optical experience. Executed in acrylic on canvas, the large-scale composition is dominated by an expansive circular form of intense blue. This circle is segmented by a white horizon line, which itself is framed by the painting's expansive black edges. The contrast between the deep, spatial blue, the white and the matte black periphery creates a focused, almost cinematic image, blending the literal representation of a view (the horizon) with radical abstraction.

With the artist's deliberate choice of an unconventional, trapezoidal canvas he is moving beyond the traditional rectangular frame. This structural decision directly challenges the passive experience of viewing and turns the object itself into an active element of perception. By altering the geometry of the support, JCJ Vanderheyden integrates the physical object into his conceptual inquiry, suggesting that the "horizon" is not merely painted but is a relative construct defined by the viewer's position relative to the non-standard edge of the painting. This piece encapsulates JCJ Vanderheyden’s unique blending of conceptual rigor with painterly execution, defining his post-Minimalist contribution to Dutch contemporary art.

JCJ Vanderheyden remains a celebrated figure in European conceptual and abstract painting, enjoying continuous institutional recognition for his singular focus on perception and light. Exhibitions of his work have included JCJ Vanderheyden: Licht, Tijd en Ruimte (Light, Time and Space) at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in 2001, and his inclusion in the group exhibition Zero is not Zero: Concepts and Contexts in Dutch Art 1965–1989 at the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (2015).