Throughout his 50-year-long career, Van Loon has fashioned imaginative forms from ceramic and textile materials in a manner that is truly virtuoso. As the results continue to be surprising, it is more than of merely ‘historic importance’ to devote a few words to his oeuvre. At present, in 2007, he has taken a further step in porcelain – on which this short introduction specifically concentrates – in his continual search for new forms. Drawing upon his decades of experience, Van Loon recently developed a technique in which porcelain (known besides its translucence for durability and strength) appears to evanesce into gossamer-thin textile.

A brief summary of what led up to this begins with his schooling in textile design in Amsterdam and Copenhagen between 1952 and 1956. After that he became interested in ceramic materials. From 1958 to 1964 he mastered the skills of a ceramicist, working under Jos Eppens-van Veen in Haarlem, Thera Hofstede Crull in Amsterdam, Lucie Rie at the Camberwell School of Art in London, Stig Lindberg at the Konstfackskole in Stockholm, the ceramicists in the unique-copy department of the Arabia factory in Helsinki (including Kylikki Salmenhaara, among others) and Jan van der Vaart. Absorbing everything that came his way, over the course of the years Van Loon gained the great technical proficiency that gives him the freedom to express the wealth of his ideas. Few ceramicists are so intrigued by the characteristics of the material as Van Loon, who continues to broaden his grasp of rendering malleable clay into permanent form. Often the material itself is the locus of expression, usually taking the form of a container, however far removed that may be from its original function.