Loet Vanderveen

As a young boy in Rotterdam, Holland, Loet went nearly every day to the city’s Victorian-era zoo. “I thought animals were way beyond belief. I marveled at them,” says the artist. “They had a little lion cub and I would feed it practically every day. Then he grew up and they put him in a cage and I was heartbroken.”

The Germans bombed Rotterdam on May 14th, 1940, killing 617 people and decimating the city. When warned of the coming attack, the government ordered the Dutch army to shoot the zoo animals, fearing that they’d get loose and endanger the population. “I got there right after the bombardment,” says Vanderveen, “and the whole place was in ruins. The lions and big cats—many of them were shot. But in the midst of it all, there was one elephant roaming. It was very, very poetic.”

Post-war times were chaotic, but the young man had friends in the fashion industry who found him work doing sketches for designers. Loet went to Paris hoping to be a designer himself, but was only offered a job sketching by a young Christian Dior. He turned it down, “…like an idiot. It was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made.”

He did find work in London designing sportswear until his American visa cleared and he packed up and moved to New York City. For three years he studied with a master ceramicist learning the art of reduced glazes. But the cutthroat business environment of the city wasn’t to his liking, and he and his new partner, the painter Alba Hayward, set out for California to settle on the rugged Big Sur coastline.

Loet began making ceramics for a living and soon was experimenting with bronze elements added to ceramic animals, which then evolved into creating cast bronze animal sculptures. This new medium brought Loet Vanderveen into the international spotlight and his works may be found in permanent exhibits of museums worldwide.

Submitted by Art Leaders Gallery