New Zero
Exhibition View
Piero Manzoni / John Nixon
Jef Verheyen
Jean Tinguely
Jesus Rafael Soto
Martial Rayisse
Henk Peeters
Henk Peeters
White Feathers, 1962
(restored in 1998)
Feathers on canvas 80 x 75 x 4 cm
The characteristic features of Peeters' material reliefs are the grid principle, and their tactile quality. In the latter category he was particularly interested in soft things that flatter the senses, like feathers or cotton wool.
"Material and feeling were very valuable to me in the "Nul" period. I tried to make sensual experience visual, in a sense. (. . .) I want to teach people how to see, to develop their powers of perception, and not just in a rational way. You could say that someone how looks at things is also starting to understand them." (Henk Peeters, 1964)
The compositional grid scheme, its structured, non-hierarchic order, is intended to permit the eye to encompass the whole work with ease. The symmetrical distribution of the materials on the ground also suggested that the internal geometrical structure could also be continued ad infinitum outside the relief.