De absurde realiteit van Jean Thomassen

Published in 1995 by Van Soeren, this volume serves as an extensive critical study and visual survey of the work of Jean Thomassen, a prominent Dutch painter known for his meticulous, dreamlike style often categorized within magical realism or surrealism. Author Gerard van Hulst documents Thomassen’s transition from a classically trained artist to a creator of complex, imaginative scenes that often juxtapose historical aesthetics with an unsettling, contemporary absurdity.

The book functions as an art-historical record that contextualizes Thomassen’s output within the late-twentieth-century Dutch art scene. It highlights his technical precision and the thematic evolution of his paintings, which frequently explore irony and the bizarre. Upon its release, it was received as a definitive reference for collectors and enthusiasts of Dutch figurative painting, grounding Thomassen’s whimsical and often provocative imagery in a structured, biographical narrative.