The Gateless Gate, is a collection of 48 Chan (Zen) koans compiled in the early 13th century by the Chinese Zen master Wumen Huikai (1183–1260). The title has a double meaning and can also be understood as Wumen’s Barrier. The compiler’s name, which literally means “No Gate”, is the same as the title’s first two characters. Each koan is accompanied by a commentary and verse by Wumen. Along with the Blue Cliff Record and the oral tradition of Hakuin Ekaku, The Gateless Gate is a central work, much used in Rinzai Zen School practice. The student is challenged to transcend the polarity that the koan represents and demonstrate or show that transcendence to the Zen teacher. In a 2006 spiritual encounter, a guided meditation under auspicien of Willem Glaudemans I went through an almost trancelike, Zen kind of trancendental experience in which I found myself irretrievably lost as some sort of Pelgrim in an arid, endless desert. While in the mids of all this life-long wandering and searching, I lost all hope of a direction or goal and decided to just sit down and give up all my strivings, after which suddenly and immediately in the middle of nowhere a Gate appeared. It was just a gate, attached to nothing, I could walk around it and it looked the same from every angle. And although I could approach it, and almost feel the rough stone texture of the door and the incredible amount of love and light I suspected that was hidden behind it, alas, there was no way to enter. This series of paintings I made years later, in a way, are meant as an endeavor to visualise that profound experience. They are related to the Zen concept of the Koan and the Gateless Gate, giving a hint of a hidden gateway to a more whole and maybe even sacred form of human existence which, in my opinion, was and is and has always been the communal striving of every truly artistic endeavor; getting as close as possible to the Gateless Gate, or, in the words of Aldous Huxley; The doors of Perception, or, in the words of Jim Morrison (with regards to my rock ’n roll background), Break on through, to the other side… Eelco Maan’s compositions in colour can be compared to musical arrangements. Strong contrasts are blended exemplary and with a superb sense of harmony into a unity of subtle variances. Lyrical abstract painting. Ready to hang. Including black/silver frame.