Porcelain panel painting developed from ceramic painting, which is both porcelain and painting. Hand-painted on a polished porcelain plate, the glazed work is baptized by flame and finally reborn and presented to the world in a thousand ways. As an important part of ceramic art, porcelain panel painting is an artistic form rooted in traditional Chinese culture, with strong national attributes, highlighting profound cultural heritage and rich ideological connotation.
▲Hehe (porcelain plate painting) Ning Gang (picture from Guangming Daily)
▲Colorful ladies round porcelain plate Qing Dynasty (picture from Guangming Daily)
The main decorative techniques of porcelain plate painting are underglaze color, glaze color and overglaze color, which can be subdivided into blue and white according to different materials and processes, blue and white glaze red, plain three colors, light silk colors, five-color, fighting colors, pastels, ancient colors, ink colors, etc., showing their own different artistic characteristics. Traditional porcelain panel painting not only inherits the aesthetic essence of traditional Chinese painting, but also has the technical characteristics of ceramic art, achieving the beauty of oriental art that never fades.
During the Tang and Song dynasties, ceramic painting techniques matured, and the development of underglaze painting technology allowed craftsmen to paint patterns on objects before glazing, while porcelain plate painting in the true sense appeared in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. On the basis of the production process of the craftsman, the ceramic plate bonding production technology is used to fire the flat porcelain plate, so that the picture has an attached carrier. The addition of red, green, yellow, brown and other color glazes added new porcelain painting methods such as multicolor and doucai, and porcelain panel painting emerged. After the Qing Dynasty, the color of colored porcelain was further enriched, ancient color, pastel, ink color and other glazes were included in porcelain painting, and the expression and production process of overglaze color and underglaze color were further improved, making the artistic appearance of porcelain plate painting more and more diversified, and gradually becoming an art form with unique aesthetic value.
The porcelain panel paintings of the late Qing Dynasty and early Min Dynasty attached great importance to the expression of painting style, attracting a large number of literati and elegant people to participate in the creation. Wang Qi, Wang Yeting, Wang Dafan and other famous artists of porcelain panel painting carried out further exploration of the language of porcelain painting in the form of new pastels, which gave birth to the important art group in the history of Chinese ceramics, "Eight Friends of Zhushan". The creation of porcelain panel paintings of "Eight Friends of Zhushan" realizes the integration of craft and fine arts, local traditions and exotic characteristics, adding new aesthetic connotations to the art of porcelain painting.
▲ He (porcelain panel painting) Lai Dequan (picture from Guangming Daily)
In the development of porcelain panel painting art, its tools, materials and even production techniques have always maintained good stability, the selection of glaze, clay, firing methods, painting techniques, etc. have not changed much, and the handicraft characteristics have left a deep imprint in traditional porcelain panel painting. The creation of contemporary porcelain panel painting places more emphasis on inheriting the traditional aesthetic paradigm and craft system, and presents the aesthetic schema with the characteristics of the times in personalized artistic language, so as to convey the aesthetic intention and artistic thinking of the creator. Contemporary porcelain panel painting artists explore the artistic expression of porcelain painting through various paths, the renewal of porcelain panel painting creation, and the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture have become their core propositions.
Taking Li Linhong's "Landscape Imagery" series of porcelain panel paintings as an example, the artist strives to reconstruct the relationship between points, lines and surfaces in the images of landscape and clouds with the help of the ingenious combination of glaze and water-based pigments. At the same time, he creatively uses loofahs, sponges, towels, etc., instead of brushes on porcelain plates to dot, dye, rub, hook, scrape, expand, wash and other techniques, creating a grand and mysterious artistic texture for the works.
▲Millennium Poplar Forest (porcelain panel painting) Zhong Liansheng (picture from Guangming Daily)
On the basis of traditional techniques, the introduction of artistic languages such as oil painting, printmaking and watercolor painting, Zhong Liansheng's porcelain panel painting creation can be described as unique. He is good at juxtaposing image elements such as landscapes, people, flowers and birds, and enhances the layering of images through multi-layer color superposition; Alcohol is sprinkled on the part of the picture, and the blending effect similar to watercolor gradually appears, which not only enhances the flow of the picture, but also makes the elements in the painting harmonious and unified.
Ning Gang's works not only draw on the modeling elements of traditional porcelain painting art, but also integrate the expression techniques of modern art; It not only highlights the quiet and warm beauty of porcelain, but also gives full play to its rich color expression ability. The artist uses the changing characteristics of high-temperature color glaze in his creation, and strives to get rid of the rigidity and rigidity that traditional porcelain panel painting is prone to. The composition of his works is sparse but not empty, full but not overflowing, and the style of the picture is either quiet and elegant, or rich and bright.
Exploring new ways of image construction with personalized expression language is the creative direction that I have been trying. For example, the picture and base of the work "Autumn Lotus" are depicted and fired in layers after glaze and then glaze. In the picture, the intricate details are depicted against the large area of white space, and under the thick and delicate brushstrokes, branches, leaves, and lotus canopies interspersed in the halo. When I created the work, I first created the flowing halos of red and yellow by blowing glaze, and the colored porcelain plates fired to create the background color of the image. After the secondary quenching of fire, the underlying image of the high-temperature color glaze may be lightened or faded, and the superposition of the graphics will produce a subtle opening phenomenon. This occasional change not only brings rich and attractive details to the work, but also adds a dense aesthetic layer.
▲Blue and white lock brocade porcelain plate Ming Dynasty (picture from Guangming Daily)
The craftsmanship of ceramic art determines that porcelain panel painting cannot be freely controlled by the creator like shelf painting. But in a sense, it is precisely this contingency that gives porcelain panel painting its unique charm and distinguishes it from other art forms. The artist looks for an artistic context between figuration and abstraction, between chance and necessity, between likeness and dislike. For example, in the creation of porcelain panel painting, the high-temperature, medium-temperature, and low-temperature color glazes are creatively used, and the layers of underglaze, glaze, and glaze are layered. Each superimposed pattern requires the rational allocation of pigments and the careful treatment of the porcelain surface, as well as the mastery of the properties of the color glaze and the precise control of the kiln time curve. Every time a work enters the kiln comes with risks, in the alternation of high temperature and low temperature, through the quenching of fire, different glaze colors at each adaptive temperature or naturally appear or gradually fade, random and accidental artistic effects give porcelain panel painting a unique beauty and natural interest.
In order to create works of art with the characteristics of the times and achieve diversified development of porcelain panel painting art, it is necessary for creators to have a deep experience of the times and life. At the same time, the injection of new concepts and the use of new materials and techniques have also given porcelain panel painting a richer aesthetic dimension. In the new era, the creators of porcelain panel paintings have the heart of craftsmen and restore the beauty of the authentic ceramic painting art with exquisite skills. This kind of beauty is the awakening and activation of the uniqueness of porcelain panel painting art, and the re-creation of painting art with ceramics as a medium. It is in this kind of reshaping and breakthrough that the creation of contemporary porcelain panel painting can break through the cocoon into a butterfly and shine with infinite new opportunities. (End)
Author/Jinko