Ceramics, as the artistic storehouse of time, retain the purest essence of ancient civilizations and interpret the unique characteristics of each era.
Jianzhan, a typical representative of China's black-glazed porcelain, was praised as the "World Tea Fighting Artifact" in the Song Dynasty, where posterity looked up to the peak of aesthetics, and was silenced for various reasons in the Yuan Dynasty, and was restored and returned to people's sight in the 1980s.
▲ Song Jian kiln rabbit mill bundle mouth cup Collection of the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne, Germany
The return after nearly a thousand years, due to the difference in tea drinking culture, the admiration of the beauty of utensils, the standard of art is different. The aesthetics of the vessel type and glaze color of contemporary kiln construction also have a different aesthetic orientation from the Song Dynasty.
Under the impact of diversified cultural information, contemporary kiln builders are no longer limited to superficial formal interests in the process of pottery production, but more pursue the language form corresponding to their own hearts and emotions, giving their works deep cultural connotations and the personality characteristics of the times.
In this regard, the ceramic art master Yang Yidong is well versed in this way. In the past, he was always pondering and thinking about how to give Jianzhan a new soul in the fusion of mud and fire, becoming a living force, so that the appearance of the artifacts would reflect people's hearts.
The "Artist" of Jianzhan Circle
Yang Yidong (1976-), a native of Wuyishan, Fujian. He graduated from Jingdezhen University with a master's degree in 2010 under the supervision of Professor Ning Gang, doctoral supervisor of Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, a master of Chinese ceramic art, and Professor Xiong Liao, the first doctor of ceramics in China.
Now he is the master of ceramic art in Fujian Province, the provincial representative inheritor of the kiln Jianzhan firing technique (Wuyishan Yulinting black glaze tea cup firing technique), senior arts and crafts artist, senior ceramic technician, etc.
His ceramic works have won many awards and have been collected by the Fujian Strait Folk Art Museum, the Nanping Museum, and the Tiangong Magazine Art Museum.
Yang Yidong, born in a ceramic class, not only has his own unique views on the aesthetics and art forms of ancient ceramics, but also can break the convention and integrate his more than ten years of ceramic research experience and artistic heritage to establish a new artistic path, which can be called a unique "artist" in the Jianzhan industry.
Growing up in the land of porcelain making, the jianyao system Where the Ruins of the Yulin Pavilion Kiln (Wuyi Mountain) are located, the Yulin Pavilion Kiln is a childhood memory that he is all too familiar with.
In 2007, he began to systematically and deeply study Jianzhan and graduated from Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute with a master's degree in 2010.
After completing his studies, he resolutely chose to return to his hometown, embarked on the road of black porcelain art creation and cultural inheritance, immersed himself in the study of kiln culture, reshaped the kiln tea cup, from the beginner to the master, down-to-earth, steady and far-reaching; do not forget the original heart, forge ahead.
Why did Yang Yidong, who is quite accomplished in calligraphy and fine arts, become related to Jianzhan? What kind of inspiration will there be for Jianzhan, and what kind of creative concept is supporting him to move forward?
Jianzhan Jun's exclusive interview with the main text was revealed.
Transcript of the interview
1. Jianzhan Jun: It is reported that Yang Yidong graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Fujian Normal University, why would he want to choose to study a master's degree in Jingdezhen Ceramics College across borders?
Yang Yidong: In fact, this is not a cross-border, ceramics are both practical and artistic works, and they also belong to a category of fine arts. I was already exposed to black glazed porcelain before I studied fine arts, I grew up in Xingcun Town, and I have been familiar with the Yulin Pavilion kiln since I was a child, but I did not systematically learn it.
The process of painting gold/silver cups with black glaze in the Kiln of Yulin Pavilion requires a certain foundation in fine art painting, and the same is true for Jianzhan, I think I can't be satisfied with the status quo, and I want to seriously study and study each process of ceramics more systematically.
▼ Yang Yidong hand-painted golden leaves on a black glaze cup
2. Jianzhan Jun: Jingdezhen blue and white porcelain, pastel porcelain, sculpture porcelain, shadow celadon and other famous porcelain, why insist on choosing black glazed porcelain?
Yang Yidong: A certain sense of hometown, coupled with the fate of going with the flow. When I was a child, the Yulin Pavilion Kiln was my childhood playground, and black was a familiar color in my heart. In the process of studying Chinese painting in college, the black of Chinese ink is a magical existence.
When I was studying for a master's degree, I studied the tea culture and Jianzhan culture of the Song Dynasty in depth, and the thousands of changes in the glaze color of jianzhan were very attractive, attracting me to a kiln, a kiln, burning, and I did not feel tired.
It was like a black hole, and I was sucked into it.
3. Jianzhan Jun: You have a lot of your own Chinese painting works in your house, do you think your achievements in art can be applied to Jianzhan?
Yang Yidong: Of course, these artistic achievements can be applied to Jianzhan. Jianzhan is an artistic carrier, and I usually like to paint on various porcelains.
▼ Yang Yidong's hand-made award-winning work "Tea Pattern Black Glaze Depiction Of Golden Lamp"
▼ Yang Yidong · In June 2014, his ceramic work "Cloud Thunder Boxware" won the bronze medal of the 2014 China Arts and Crafts Hundred Flowers Award
▼ Yang Yidong , "Color glaze pastel plum bottle"
▼ Yang Yidong Green Landscape "Empty Mountain New Language"
I have been painting art since 1997, and in fact, there is still a lot of room for artistic creation on black glazed porcelain. Don't look at the Ugin glaze color, it is not ordinary black.
Careful observation found that the black glaze hides stars, and the black glaze of jianzhan is different from the black of other black porcelain, and I paint gold on it, and the effect is different.
It's a combination of art.
▼ Yang Yidong hand-painted Jin Jianzhan, the direction in which each leaf falls is the way home, and round, full and delicate silver and blue oil droplets can be seen on the dark and shiny bottom glaze
Exchange shopping
There is also artistic innovation in modeling, which also requires art skills.
▼ Yang Yidong patented instrument type - heaven round place, the bottom of the tire is a unique instrument type of square seal carving
4. Jianzhan Jun: Wow ~ (self-brain expression) Your Personal Foot Repair Style is very special, why is it in this style?
Yang Yidong: The traditional Jianzhan is generally half glazed on the type of the vessel, because the jianzhan is thickly glazed, the glaze will flow down, it is easy to stick to the kiln; in order to prevent the glaze from flowing, I processed it into a bumpy texture effect in the place where there was no glaze.
The inspiration comes from the accumulation of my usual Chinese painting mountains, "horizontally looking into the peaks on the side of the ridge, the height of the distance and the distance are different."
The use of chinese mountain brushes is similar to the high and low of Chinese painting peaks, which is an innovative way of building a cup in artistic aesthetics and forms its own style.
▼ Works by Yang Yidong
5. Jianzhan Jun: In the eyes of many veteran inheritors, Jianzhan is a career for which to fight for a lifetime. I would like to know, in the eyes of you (the master artist), what is special about Jianzhan? What kind of existence is Jianzhan?
Yang Yidong: The black-glazed tea cup is a pearl buried in the smoke and dust of history, and the artistic value behind it is immeasurable. Jianzhan is the art of black porcelain aesthetics, but also the aesthetics of life.
▼ Yang Yidong handmade kiln oil drop cup works
6. Jianzhan Jun: We know that non-genetic inheritance is not only a matter of representative inheritors, nor is it only the inheritance of the skills themselves, but a fusion inheritance based on the common concern and extensive cooperation of all sectors of society, and constantly interacts with ancient times and contemporary life. How do you understand the relationship between inheritance and artistic creation?
Yang Yidong: While adhering to tradition and respecting ancient laws, we must have our own ideas, think and create on a solid theoretical basis, and give full play to the imagination and creation of art.
Inheritance is never fixed, non-genetic inheritance can still be innovated... Looking back at the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing, for us it is ancient, then the Tang is also ancient for the Song, and the Song is also inherited and innovated on the basis of the Tang.
We should do the same.
The works of our time, after a hundred years or even a thousand years, are also a tradition for future generations, and they can create aesthetics that conform to our modern people on the basis of inheriting the ancients;
The essence of excellent traditional culture combined with our current cultural trend, this kind of Jianzhan culture can spread farther and have more vitality.
7. Jianzhan Jun: How do you understand the construction of wood burning and the current new type of electric burning or liquefaction of jianzhan? Is there a difference at the artistic level?
Yang Yidong: From an artistic point of view, I personally think that this is just a tool for firing a cup.
Just as the steamed rice in the wood stove in the countryside when I was a child was the same as the rice cooked in the rice cooker, modern people may prefer firewood rice;
In the 1980s, the emergence of rice cookers made people feel that rice was more nutritious and more fragrant; but now every household has become accustomed to having rice cookers, which I think is a psychological effect.
From the appearance point of view, the texture of wood burning is more quaint, and the beauty of electric burning is more ostentatious. Therefore, there is no absolute standard for which firing method is better, depending on the personal point of view.
8. Jianzhan Jun: You have been in the ceramic industry for more than ten years, in the past ten years, whether it is a firing jianzhan or a black glaze depiction of the golden cup, what are the happy moments you can share?
Yang Yidong: The moment of opening the kiln and waiting. Jianzhan has a charming magic, that is, the moment of opening the kiln, you never know what you will get after opening the kiln, so every time I open the kiln, I will always have expectations, so that I can always have the motivation to struggle and want to continue to conquer and explore.
9. Jianzhan Jun: Knowing that you have a lot of cultural burdens on your shoulders, the director of the Wuyishan City Cultural Center, the vice chairman and secretary general of the Wuyishan Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature, what are your expectations for the inheritance of the kiln culture?
Yang Yidong: Although Jianzhan is one of the business cards of northern Fujian, people's concept still stays on the Wuyi Rock Tea Dahongpao, and its popularity is still relatively low, and there are fewer folk practitioners.
▼ Yang Yidong exchanged tea cup culture with Teacher Liu Anxing, the inheritor of da hong pao making skills
I actively participate in various art exhibitions and activities, mainly because I want to publicize the rich cultural heritage of the Kiln System such as Jianzhan in more aspects, so that people can understand Jianzhan and understand the Kiln System at a deeper level.
▼ Cross-strait tea fair spreads ceramic culture
Therefore, the social responsibility undertaken is not only a craftsman, but also to serve the local cultural group, and strive to build Jianzhan into a business card of China's excellent traditional culture in the new era.
▼The relevant certificate is actually photographed
There is very little time to really belong to yourself, so the time to burn the cup is squeezed out. In my opinion, craftsmen are easy to cultivate, technology can be learned, but art is never-ending.
I hope that more and more people will present the value contained in Jianzhan in the works, and even the spiritual side can be seen.
10. Jianzhan Jun: Finally, in your eyes, what kind of Jianzhan works do you think can move people?
Yang Yidong: There is a taste (not an olfactory taste, but an artistic taste), something different, such as glaze color and instrument type, spontaneous works that are spontaneous but have cultural connotations, can touch people's hearts.
"Inheritance is never fixed", Jianzhan is not a cold artifact, but a symbol containing China's excellent traditional culture and ingenuity culture.
From Yang Yidong's recent joint creation with the Supervision And Craftsman Division, the series of Jianzhan "Raising Cases and Raising Eyebrows" can be seen, which shows the collision between the Song Ci culture and the Song Dynasty Jianzhan culture.
The work of "Raising the Eyebrows of the Case" is displayed
▼Jiangchengzi Silver Oil Drop Rim Cup Size: 9.8×6.3 cm
▼Flower between the flowers· Colorful oil drops mouth cup Size 9.4×5.7 cm
Write at the end:
No matter what kind of carrier it appears on, art always ends with the "manifestation of the spirit itself"; Jianzhan is the art of black porcelain aesthetics, but also the aesthetics of life.