Jean Thomassen

Jean Thomassen (born 5 September 1949) is a Dutch artist and writer whose paintings are in an 'absurd realism' style. He lives in Heiloo in the Netherlands.

Absurd realism is a type of art within the broad category of fantastic art. The term was first mentioned in the Netherlands in 1991 in the book 'The Absurd Reality of Jean Thomassen' by the Belgian author Gerard van Hulst. On 17 November 2008 a number of his works, including Egyptian Triptych, were destroyed when the Daan Enneking collection went up in flames.

In 2010, Jean Thomassen was made a knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau for his contributions to Dutch art. In 2013 his work was awarded a Merit Award in Leipzig Germany, and in 2014 he won the First Prize Palm Award.

Career Thomassen did not receive formal training to become an artist and initially designed sleeves for Bootleg albums for White Label and Redita Records.

In 1973 Thomassen developed a relationship with the ballerina and actress Ine Veen. Born in 1937, Veen had trained in dance at the Nel Roos Ballet Academy in Amsterdam, and was subsequently contracted by Yvonne Georgi for the Hanover Opera Ballet. Veen became the inspiration of many of his paintings and appeared in many of them. She arranged his debut exhibition at Gallery Artim in The Hague in 1974 and this was followed by Dutch TV film.

Ine Veen also encouraged Thomassen to enter international competitions, resulting in prizes in New York 1988, Toronto 1987, 1988, 1989 Critics were initially divided in the assessment of his work: Glenn Janes at Museum Slager, viewing '1900 and Yesterday, No 2' (1989). In 1991, he held a series of commemorative exhibitions to mark the 60th anniversary of the death of Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova (1881-1931). He wrote a biography of Pavlova in 1995 that received publicity in England and Russia. Other exhibitions followed, which also marked the publication of Gerard van Hulst's book 'De absurde realiteit van Jean Thomassen' ('The Absurd Reality of Jean Thomassen).

Books Thomassen has written the following books: Anna Pavlova, Triumph and Tragedy of a Megastar [Anna Pavlova, triomf en tragedie van een megaster], 1995, Old Masters of Tomorrow (the Enneking Collection), 2000, Scams in the Art and Antiques Trade [Zwendel in de kunst en antiekhandel], 2007, The Gospel of Evil [Het evangelie van het kwaad], 2007, Egypt Before and Different [Egypte eerder en anders], 2008, Bastards in art [Smeerlappen in de kunst], 2009, Mediums and other phenomena, Paranormal or deception? [Mediums en andere fenomenen], 2009, Music of the Devil [Muziek van de duivel], 2009, Was Adam a Gorilla? [Was Adam een gorilla], 2010, Notes on the Holocaust, 2011, Curtain up for a real star [Doek op voor een echte ster], 2017, 1900 and Yesterday [1900 en gisteren], 2019, The Amasis Collection (Foreword), 2020,