Jean de Groote: In de Stilte van de Dingen (In the Quiet of Things) by Willem Elias et al. (review)

This book is a little treasure. It is with considerable difficulty that I have reviewed In de stilte van de dingen, mainly because at present it is only published in Dutch. I managed to obtain a PDF file of the manuscript in Dutch via Edith Doove, one of the book's essay contributors and also a Leonardo reviewer. I then translated this file using Google Translate, which astonishingly did the whole book in one go, just well enough to read and understand. Why did I go to the trouble, I hear you ask? Because De Groote's work is worth any amount of effort.

In our supersaturated global society of images, screens, sensationalized hype, noise and busyness, De Groote's paintings are like silent healing sentinels that take us to a quiet contemplative center where we may experience the true essence of the "thing." De Groote chooses as subject matter commonplace, normally unremarkable objects such as an envelope, a banana, a light switch or a twig. The cover of the book features his Envelop painting, an austere image in grey, off-white textured oil on canvas; this painting stopped me in my tracks with a gasp of "that's it." We do not reproduce images in these reviews; however, you may view many of De Groote's works on his website.

The book has 13 essays discussing De Groote's work; some are long theoretical texts, others short descriptions in poetic form. These are interspersed with well over 70 color images of the paintings. Many of the works were recently shown at De Groote's hometown gallery, with which he has been associated for many years: S&H De Buck, Zuidstationstraat in Ghent. Consequently, the book is part catalogue, part art book, part theoretical discussion of De Groote's work. As Els Vermeersch aptly states on the back cover, "the works must above all make themselves felt. The pictorial representation does not take precedence here, but the process of observation and construction does. Hence Jean De Groote's central theme: 'no observer, no object.'"

I found the first essay, by Elias, rather disappointing, as it seems to miss the point of De Groote's work and is basically a theoretical "rave" concerning postmodernism and its glitterati—Derrida, Barthes, Foucault, Kristeva et al. Perhaps we could think of De Groote as a Platonist, as I believe he does see himself, but if we step outside the Eurocentric philosophical traditions and look into the Eastern approach to existence, we find they are far more appropriate in describing De Groote's work. Especially Zen. Zen does not want to talk about the "thing" but rather experience the "thing" itself in itself, direct experience, no theoretical hot air attached. The point of De Groote's painting is for the viewer to directly experience the essence of the "thing," to stand transfixed before the painting and feel the essence totally. Van Damme, in his essay, "Op zoek naar de essentie met Jean De Groote" ("In Search of the Essence with Jean De Groote") (pp. 75–81), really understands this, as he states, "The artist (subject) and the twig (object) falls together for a moment and forms one harmonic unity, at least on a mental level." This is the essence of Zen as described in Zen in the Art of Archery, where the archer, the arrow and the target become one, "no correspondence entered into" [1]!

Further along this line of appreciation, as Michiels so beautifully says, "the work of Jean De Groote cannot be explained, it slowly penetrates within you. It is a silent argument, a soft anarchy. It is like pure poetry" (p. 53). Van Haute, in his essay, is in a sense issuing a warning against overintellectualizing and overanalyzing De Groote's work when he says...