In the early 1970s there was little interestin the unusual paintings of the Dutchartist Jean Thomassen. Some art criticswere scathing intheir reviews. One wrotethat he could 'puke' after seeingThomassen's paintings; anothersuggested that 'they had to be made bysomeone from an asylum, for no normalhu man being can have such sickfantasies'. But other more perceptivecritics praised him as 'a genius'.So, 'genius' or 'as mad as a hatter'? Th isis the question constantly provoked byThomassen's unusual and unpredictablepaintings which form the subject of thisbook. The Foreword is by lne Veen, theformer Dutch ballerina, actress andmodel who discovered Thomassen'stalentsin 1973 and gave him theopportunity to develop into the nowundisputed master of Absurd Realism.(Appropriately, it is a tiny 1.2 x 1.2 mmpainting of her right eye that has earned Thomassen a place in the Guinness Bookof Records as the creator of the wortd'ssmallest oil painting).Thomassen- a winner of manyinternational awards and author of 17books- was knighted in 2009 for hiscontri bution to Dutch art.