View source for Robert Jasper Grootveld

{{Short description|Dutch artist}}
[[File:Robert Jasper Grootveld (1964).jpg|thumb|Robert Jasper Grootveld (1964)]]
'''Robert Jasper Grootveld''' (19 July 1932 – 26 February 2009) was a Dutch artist, best known for his events on the [[Spui (Amsterdam)|Spui]] in Amsterdam. Grootveld's '[[happenings]]' were a forerunner of the [[Provo (movement)|Provo movement]], which he later joined.

Grootveld was born in Amsterdam. From 1964 he staged [[Tobacco control|anti-smoking]] [[Happening]]s at the ''Het Lieverdje'' ("The Little Darling") statue in Amsterdam, after discovering that it had been donated to the city by a [[Tobacco industry|tobacco company]].  Grootveld would appear at midnight on Saturdays, strangely attired, and dance around the statue in a cloud of his own [[Tobacco smoke|cigarette smoke]], as he called all sorts of incantations. "Uche, uche, uche" and "Klaas komt" were his best known incantations, the last meaning "Klaas is Coming!" became familiar graffiti around the city. At the core of Grootveld's philosophy was the belief that the masses had been brainwashed into becoming a herd of addicted consumers.<ref>[http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/HT_provos_0190.html/ History of the Provos] ''High Times'', January 1990</ref>

[[Nozem]]s, a Dutch subculture, were attracted to the [[street theatre]] as were some intellectuals inspired by Grootveld's innovative methods of communicating his message. One in particular, [[Roel van Duijn]], observing the potential of street actions as provocations to alter society, began to distribute a magazine called ''Provo'' at these events.

==References==
{{reflist}}
* "[http://www.iisg.nl/grootveld/inhoudsopgave.php Magiër van een nieuwe tijd. Het leven van Robert Jasper Grootveld]," by Eric Duivenvoorden (Amsterdam, Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers, 2009)
*"The Provo Riots" by Christopher Gray (London, Heatwave #2, 1966) http://charlieradcliffe.com/wp-content/uploads/Heatwave02.pdf

==External links==
* [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/robert-jasper-grootveld-artist-and-activist-who-helped-found-the-dutch-provos-in-the-1960s-1687682.html Robert Jasper Grootveld obituary] in ''The Independent'' 20 May 2009
* RJG performances [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omb23Qm_RG8 on addiction and the arrival of Klaas] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbKX7cDVLiI and white bicycles] [[Michael Apted]](1966)

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019}}

{{ACArt}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grootveld, Robert Jasper}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:2009 deaths]]
[[Category:Counterculture]]
[[Category:Dutch artists]]
[[Category:Dutch activists]]
[[Category:Dutch surrealist artists]]
[[Category:Street theatre]]
[[Category:Anti-smoking activists]]