Joris Verdonkschot Dutch, b. 1947

Joris August Verdonkschot (Heemstede, 1947) is a Dutch sculptor, filmmaker, photographer and poet. Verdonkschot was trained at the Netherlands Film Academy. In 1969, he started his own film production company. To this day, he continues to make short feature films and dance films. This artistic multitalent also graduated in Law at Utrecht University and Cultural Studies at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. In addition to sculpting and film making, Verdonkschot devotes himself to studio photography and publishes his own poetry.

In the early 1990s, he came into contact with classical sculpture and the work of Cellini, among others, at the Bargello Museum in Florence. This inspired him to start working with wax himself. He took lessons from sculptor Karel Gomes (1993-1996). In 1995, he had his first exhibition as a sculptor. 

Verdonkschot has an oeuvre of 180 expressive bronze sculptures, in which the naked human body is a recurring motif. Verdonkschot's vision: 'I believe that a sculpture should have its own vitality. Not so much a representation of natural life force, movement, physical action, but a concentrated energy, an intense life of its own that a work can have independently of what it represents. 

Various sculptures by Verdonkschot are on display in public spaces and collections, including in the municipality of Bloemendaal, at Philips Research in Eindhoven, the Elswout Estate in Overveen, and Museum More in Ruurlo. He created the present for Princess Margriet on the occasion of her retirement from the Dutch Red Cross. And Verdonkschot was a guest lecturer in sculpture at the Repin Academy in Saint Petersburg.