Text / Xu Fei, Yin Shuyu
For thousands of years, Dehua white porcelain has become a treasure in the history of arts and crafts with its white and transparent carcass, gentle and elegant glaze and beautiful modeling and decorative arts, and enjoys the reputation of "China White". Since the Ming Dynasty, Dehua porcelain sculpture masters have come out in large numbers, there are famous craftsmen how Chaozong, Zhang Shoushan, Chen Wei, Lin Chaojing, etc., they fired the porcelain sculptures of Buddhist and Taoist characters along with the export porcelain of Dehua kiln at home and abroad; At present, ceramic art is in the context of post-industrial civilization, and in the face of the chaotic appearance of modern art, how to explore the path of artistic transformation in the tradition is the question of contemporary Dehua ceramic artists. Xu Ruifeng, a master of Chinese arts and crafts and a representative inheritor of Dehua porcelain firing skills, a national intangible cultural heritage project, has developed and innovated in molding methods, modeling characteristics, material characteristics and other aspects on the basis of inheriting Dehua's traditional porcelain and plastic skills, forming a unique artistic outlook. Through the efforts of several generations, Xu's porcelain sculpture has inherited the sculpture style of "Shanhu Zu" on the basis of integrating the characteristics of Dehua's "He School Porcelain Sculpture", forming an artistic style with full figures, fine parts, open faces and elegant lines. From the inheritance story of Xu's porcelain sculpture, we have seen a microcosm of Dehua's porcelain firing skills. In this issue, I walked into Xu Ruifeng's studio and asked him to talk about the creative methods and experience of porcelain sculpture. (Overcast and rainy)
Yin Shuyu (first-class artist of the Chinese Academy of Arts, host of the column of this magazine): Hello Mr. Xu! Dehua porcelain sculpture has a long history, as a master of Chinese arts and crafts, a representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project Dehua porcelain firing skills, you have made high artistic achievements and accumulated a lot of creative experience. When did you first come into contact with porcelain sculpture and could you tell us about the history of porcelain sculpture?
Xu Ruifeng (Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts, Representative Inheritor of Dehua Porcelain Firing Skills, a National Intangible Cultural Heritage Project): When it comes to my relationship with Dehua porcelain sculpture, there is a key word: family inheritance. The Huqian Xu Cuo in Dehua County is the settlement of our Xu family, from the middle of the Qing Dynasty to the present generation of porcelain, to I am already the sixth generation. My grandfather Xu Wenjun once studied under Xu Youyi, a master of Dehua porcelain sculpture in the Republic of China. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Dehua County established the Dehua Porcelain Factory in Fujian Province, and his grandfather was one of the veterans of the factory. My father, Xu Xingtai, went to work in the sculpture group of Dehua Porcelain Factory at the age of 16. In the mid-80s of the 20th century, he contracted the art porcelain workshop, and as the director of the workshop, he made a certain contribution to the contemporary innovation of Dehua porcelain sculpture. There are two streams in front of my house, and when I was a child, my father was afraid that I would go to play in the water during the holidays, so from the fifth grade of primary school until I graduated from junior high school, my father took me to the art porcelain workshop as a helper during the winter and summer vacations. At that time, the art porcelain workshop brought together a group of the best porcelain masters in Fujian Province, so I followed the masters in the workshop, watched them do things, and listened to them talk about the knowledge and essentials of porcelain creation and production. The strong artistic environment nourished my character and state of mind, and also planted the seeds for my future porcelain sculpture creation.
In 1986, when I was 17 years old, I formally entered the Dehua Technical School to learn ceramic skills, and received more systematic training in ceramic technology, art theory and other courses, and after graduating in 1988, I was assigned to work as a worker in the art porcelain workshop of Dehua Porcelain Factory, and officially entered the industrial porcelain production. In my early years, the basic skills training in the art porcelain workshop became my valuable knowledge accumulation, and I could directly engage in the creation of porcelain sculptures. I still vividly remember the process of creating my first porcelain sculpture in the factory, which was a baby elephant (Western porcelain), I slept thinking about making the posture of the baby elephant vivid, and when I woke up in the middle of the night, I immediately got up and ran to the studio to shape the image that appeared in my dream.
Next, I would like to briefly talk about the development process of Dehua porcelain sculpture and the reasons for its longevity. Historically, the artistic achievements of Dehua porcelain sculpture are formed by the combined help of composite factors. First, the ceramic industry is a highly synergistic industry, in addition to high-quality porcelain clay, water conservancy, forestry resources, Dehua also has a perfect ceramic production process system to ensure the quality of porcelain firing and smooth transportation channels. Jingdezhen and other places from foreign outstanding craftsmen, the introduction of advanced porcelain-making technology, to promote the technological upgrading of Dehua porcelain industry. Second, the southern Fujian culture is characterized by openness and inclusiveness, with Confucianism, Taoism and polytheistic worship, numerous gods, prosperous temples, and particularly developed folk arts, such as wood carving, stone carving and other forms that have laid an artistic foundation for the creation and burning of porcelain Buddha statues. Third, along with the export porcelain trade of the Ming and Qing Maritime Silk Road, the flow of capital and the exchange of technology gave birth to the consumer demand of the market. Fourth, the porcelain sculpture masters represented by He Chaozong have emerged one after another, constructing the aesthetic tradition and artistic paradigm of Dehua porcelain sculpture. It is not an exaggeration if we use "reaching the peak" to describe He Chaozong's works, it seems that the appearance of He Chaozong is an irreproducible phenomenon. However, if we analyze these factors in depth, we will find that the works of masters such as He Chaozong were not created by meditation in the workshop, but that these Buddha statues exude a noble and elegant earthly atmosphere, and are full of spirituality. In other words, the works of masters such as He Chaozong reflect a high degree of unity between literati temperament and profound skills. This aspect is exactly what our contemporary Dehua porcelain creators should learn and understand.
Xu Ruifeng's work photo
Xu Fei (Master's Tutor, School of Art and Design, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics): Dehua porcelain firing technique is an ancient traditional Chinese handicraft skill, please talk about the porcelain sculpture production process and process characteristics.
Xu Ruifeng: Like other intangible cultural heritage in the mainland, Dehua porcelain firing skills require long-term continuous study to be understood, including the inheritance of apprenticeship or family learning. For example, a young person who has just come into contact with porcelain sculpture must carry out at least one year of apprenticeship training, starting from kneading Guanyin's fingers, this item alone will take a few months to learn, make hair, lotus, streamers, beads, these decomposed process steps are to be learned, this process basically takes about a year, whether the artist can become a qualified artist still needs the assessment of the master. What I just said is just the beginning of the process, an excellent artist must be familiar with the whole process of porcelain production process, and be proficient in one or two of the key processes. Dehua porcelain sculpture has a wide range of social influence today, and shines in major museums and exhibitions at home and abroad, which is the result of the collaborative creation of different artists.
The process of contemporary Dehua porcelain sculpture can be roughly divided into five processes: prototype, molding, grouting, repairing and kiln, each of which requires skilled artists to cooperate with the operation.
The first step is to prototype. Refers to the creation and design of porcelain sculptures, that is, the artistic presentation of porcelain clay as sculptures. Colleagues in the art world mainly judge whether the works have innovative value through techniques and styles. Therefore, the good shaping of the prototype is a very critical step, which determines the success or failure of the artistic effect of the porcelain sculpture work.
The second step is to make a mold. Now Dehua has a master who specializes in opening porcelain molds, and the quality of the molds determines whether the works can be formed and fired. The purpose of opening the mold is to copy the work, and the number of copies needs to depend on the size and difficulty of the prototype volume, so the level of the mold master should be tested by the final firing.
The third step is grouting. The blending of mud and the content of water glass are very particular, which will directly affect the shrinkage of the body, and the mud body will crack after being demoulded.
The fourth step of repairing the blank, the artist rubbed the fingers of Guanyin when he was an apprentice, and the technique of making hair, lotus, streamers, and beads can come in handy, as well as the portrayal of clothing lines, how to do the details in place, and the assembly and splicing of different parts and the support are all technical work, which are completed by the artist who repairs the blank. For example, I made a prototype, and the work presented to the customer also depends on the level of the mold master and the repairer. Billet repair is a technique that I have been learning all my life, including myself. There is no end to art, and there is no ultimate in cultivation.
The final process is the kiln. The biggest difference between ceramics and other arts and crafts is that they need to be fired in the kiln, and the porcelain can only become a work in the real sense after the fire is fired. One of the important links is to grasp the shrinkage rate of porcelain. From the beginning of the modeling of the mud to the final exit of the kiln, the porcelain blank has to produce 20% shrinkage, which is the process of deformation, softening and recrystallization. The water slowly evaporates outward, and how to synchronize the temperature of the surface and the inside of the body, and the temperature of different parts is a university question. After the kiln, it burned out and the previous work was lost, and sometimes I would cry out in anger, and I couldn't eat. If the cooking is successful, any meal will be fragrant.
In short, although the firing technique of Dehua porcelain sculpture has been transformed into a mechanized procedure in contemporary times, the human factor is still very important. Each process requires a high degree of cooperation from the master. With the improvement of artistic accomplishment, looking back at some works in the past few years, and finding that there are unsatisfactory places, we will rethink the problems existing in the process from creation to firing, and it is common to tear down unsatisfactory works and start over.
Part of the steps of Xu Ruifeng's Dehua porcelain firing process - porcelain clay pile shape
Part of the process of firing Xu Ruifeng's Dehua porcelain sculpture - carving the head
Part of the steps of Xu Ruifeng's porcelain firing process - rubbing his fingers
Part of the process of Xu Ruifeng's Dehua porcelain firing process - adding ornaments
Part of the process of Xu Ruifeng's Dehua porcelain firing process - the completion of the porcelain blank
Yin Shuyu: "Xu's streamer" technique is the pride of porcelain sculpture art. Please talk about the specific method and artistic value of the work.
Xu Ruifeng: As a kind of expressive language of porcelain sculpture, the streamer is indeed one of the innovative points of Xu's porcelain sculpture, and it also responds to the question of artistic value you just asked, just like the streamers of famous porcelain sculptures such as "Magu Lu" (by Xu Youyi) and "Heavenly Maiden Scattered Flowers" (by Xu Xingtai) enhance the sense of elegance of the works. However, I would like to emphasize that the overall artistic charm of porcelain sculpture is the core issue of creation, and the streamer cannot exist independently from the overall momentum of the image. When we look at Xu Youyi's "Magu Deer", it is easy to be attracted by their light and rhythmic streamers, and it is precisely through his conscious interspersed with the relationship between the characters and the environment that the streamers have become an indispensable part of porcelain decoration. When I created "The Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers", I used the streamer as one of the constituent elements in the porcelain sculpture, which can guide the change of the visual center of gravity of the work, and produce a more stable or unstable feeling.
Xu Fei: Your works have developed and innovated in terms of molding methods, modeling characteristics, material characteristics, etc., and have formed a unique artistic style. Tell us about the creation process of your representative porcelain sculpture "Guanyin".
Xu Ruifeng: "Guanyin at Ease" is a solid porcelain sculpture work, I have been conceiving since 2014, the whole porcelain sculpture production process, from the mud pile to the molding, the middle has to go through the overall shape design, facial expression portrayal, fold treatment, accessories treatment and other processes, these processes are completed step by step. However, due to the huge size and special shape of the work, various conditions occurred during firing. Later, after repeated attempts and modifications, it finally took 6 years to finally fire at the end of 2020.
In terms of styling features, "Freedom in Guanyin" uses contrasting expressions, such as the strength of the trapezoidal body and the roundness and softness of Guanyin, the simplicity of bare skin and the complicated lines of the folds of the bun, etc., to complement each other and highlight the theme. I focused on the details of the face of the white-clothed Guanyin, accurately portrayed the plump and benevolent form, and used sharp and smooth knife techniques to express the layers and shades of the texture of the folds. Due to the thick body, this work has a wider creative space, which can be better recreated and revised. This work has two characteristics in terms of material characteristics: one is that the work is 0.75 meters long, 0.45 meters wide and 1.45 meters high after firing, which is currently the largest single porcelain sculpture Guanyin in Dehua; However, frankly speaking, our research on solid porcelain sculpture is still in the climbing stage, and the current excellent rate of firing is not high, and there is a certain amount of experience accumulation but it is far from being able to control it handily.
Xu Ruifeng, Guanyin, Solid, Porcelain 75×45×150cm, 2022
Yin and rain: What is "solid porcelain"?
Xu Ruifeng: In fact, Dehua solid porcelain sculpture has appeared as early as the late Ming Dynasty, and porcelain sculpture masters such as He Chaozong have works that have survived, but the firing method has been lost with the change of dynasties. After the 90s of the 20th century, my father Xu Xingtai and uncle Xu Xingze decided to resume the process of solid porcelain sculpture, and after repeated experiments, they finally broke through the barriers of traditional porcelain molding and fired the whole body of porcelain sculpture with full solidity and no hollowing. Of course, they also left some regrets, such as the extremely low yield of firing, and the small volume, all within 1 meter. In recent years, on the basis of my father's research, I have improved the porcelain clay formula and firing technique, which has greatly increased the volume of my works, and gradually formed my own style characteristics.
First, the creation of solid porcelain sculptures is a test of the artist's patience. In particular, the process of natural air-drying takes at least four months, and it is impossible to rush it. If it is dried with a fan, often a layer of mud on the surface will dry quickly, while the mud inside is still wet, and the degree and speed of drying inside and outside are inconsistent, which will cause bursting during firing in the future. So, this kind of work can't be done without enough patience. On the other hand, this is just a test of the artist's cultivation, many times a good work of art needs a long wait, I make solid porcelain sculptures are also in dialogue with time, in the process I will gradually adjust, find my own artistic direction.
Second, the solid porcelain sculpture tests the artist's firing level. In the process of firing solid porcelain sculptures, the porcelain body is easy to burst, this is because the carcass is too thick, and the shrinkage speed is different when it is exposed to high temperature, the temperature is from the outside to the inside, the outer layer is heated quickly, the temperature is relatively high, the shrinkage is fast, the inner heating is slightly slower, the temperature is relatively low, and the shrinkage is slightly slower. Therefore, each piece of porcelain has to be repeatedly modified and fired more than a dozen times in the furnace, which not only takes a long time to fire, but also has a low yield rate. Even, there are different weather conditions such as cloudy and sunny weather during creation, which will affect the difference in the firing of the work.
Third, each piece of solid porcelain is a unique product and has a high collection value. The nature of the artist is not to like repetition, and the solid porcelain sculpture provides such an opportunity, it does not use plaster molds, it is all made of porcelain clay, and cannot be reproduced. As a result, each piece I create is unique and in very small quantities. I believe that the more emotions you put into your work, the higher its value. From conception to firing, the artist and technician must pay full attention, because the work will leave traces of production, especially the solid porcelain sculpture needs to be fired in the kiln repeatedly, these processes can be recorded on the work, and it can also communicate with the viewer on a spiritual level.
Fourth, retain the transparent and smooth porcelain. Each piece of solid porcelain sculpture is heavy and heavy in the hand. It is usually thought that the solid porcelain carcass is extremely thick, so it should be opaque, but Dehua white porcelain has always been known for its transparency and smoothness, and to achieve such a texture, only the use of the best quality porcelain clay can be achieved. The solid plastic is retained by the color and luster of the bright and bright character, presenting the effect of milky white like clotted cream, showing the beauty of the texture of Dehua white porcelain.
Xu Fei: You have been focusing on the research of porcelain materials and firing techniques for a long time, please introduce the mystery of the two glaze varieties of "China Red" and "Gem Glaze".
Xu Ruifeng: Dehua porcelain is known as "China white", and white porcelain is the golden sign of Dehua. At the same time, in order to adapt to the different market demands, the porcelain varieties of the major famous kilns have been tried, and a good industrial chain has been formed. However, there are many kinds of porcelain but not refined, which leads to low-price competition, which is not conducive to the healthy development of Dehua ceramic industry.
Can Dehua porcelain only burn white porcelain? Is it possible for white porcelain to cross over to other monochrome glazed porcelain? These questions are all questions that Dehua ceramic artists often pondered in the late 90s of the 20th century. Masters such as Su Qinghe and Lin Mudian have made great achievements in the exploration of restoring porcelain varieties such as ivory white and child red in the Ming Dynasty through the experiment of porcelain clay formula. But they still make a fuss about white, enriching the pedigree of Dehua porcelain from white. As a new generation of Dehua porcelain creators, I need to open up from the fields that my predecessors have not touched. The red saturation of the "China Red" developed and fired by me has reached 99.9%, which is a big red in the true sense. In particular, a transparent glaze is generated on the surface of the "China Red" glaze, which is like a layer of transparent glass on the outside of the red glaze. In addition, I also used a hand-drawn "China Red" gourd bottle with a height of 120 cm, breaking through the limitations of the Dehua porcelain hand-drawn blank process at that time that could only make simple shapes such as bowls and cylinders.
Speaking of gem glaze, there is more story, in 1999, by chance, I got acquainted with an expert who makes ceramic glaze water, after many discussions with this expert, after more than a year of improving the glaze water formula, adding different materials rich in iron, zinc, titanium, so as to present a multi-color effect of flowers blooming, and finally developed a gem glaze formula. The porcelain sculpture "Shepherdess" is a gemstone glaze work, the glaze gloss and purity are high, and there are also natural cracks and small bubbles. Under the microscope, we can clearly see the cracks in the ice and the small bubbles that are crystal clear. I use modern scientific and technological means to transform the unconscious "kiln change" of gemstone glaze into a conscious "kiln change". It is a kind of glaze characterized by crystallization, that is, after the glaze is dissolved, it is slowly cooled to saturate the crystalline substances in the glaze, so as to precipitate the crystals of magnificent patterns. However, unlike in the past, the gemstone glaze is a high-temperature, coarse-grained, multi-colored crystal glaze, and the shimmering, crystalline snowflakes on the shepherdess's robe lead the viewer into a colorful dream world.
Xu Ruifeng, Shepherdess, Jewel-glazed porcelain sculpture, 15×12×40 cm, 2013
Yin Shuyu: What was the inspiration for the work "Xuan", and how did it break through the two limits of porcelain clay molding and ceramic firing?
Xu Ruifeng: It has been more than ten years since the creation of the work "Xuan", when life was close to confusion, and I tried to make some works with my own personality language, so I wanted to go back to the origin and reflect on the creation of porcelain. We Chinese deal with porcelain every day, and porcelain can be used as both a daily food vessel and a ritual vessel, but it is inseparable from a sentence in the Tao Te Ching: "埏埴 is a vessel, when it is not, there is a vessel." I think this sentence is very wise, Lao Tzu did not limit us to burn porcelain to burn useful utensils, is it possible for me to make a "useless" work? I thought about it, so I deconstructed a porcelain vase, the appearance is both a bottle and not a bottle, the practical function of the original porcelain vase is dissolved, and it becomes a "transparent" porcelain vase. Later, I named this work "Xuan", which is a work that transforms abstract philosophical thinking into tangible works. When the work was exhibited, some viewers saw it as a spinning top, like a spring, but it didn't matter, because I aroused everyone's interest in the interpretation of the work, and the industry still gave a lot of affirmation to my creation, which supported me to continue to explore new art forms.
As for the production of "Xuan", it took a lot of time, and this work, needless to say, was a difficult problem just to form. Between the concept and the firing, I made a balance, you see that now it is wide in the middle of the two ends, and adopts a spiral structure, spiraling from the bottom to the top, all the gravity is supported by the base, the height of the device is about 40 cm, the widest diameter of the abdomen is 18 cm, every detail is the best plan that I have obtained through trial and error, so as to ensure the success rate of firing.
Xu Ruifeng, Xuan, Jewel glazed porcelain, 15×15×32 cm, 2015
Xu Fei: The improvement of skills has extended the technical space of porcelain statues, and "antiquity is borrowed" is a diligent pursuit of the true nature of art. Can you briefly introduce the current development of Dehua porcelain sculpture?
Xu Ruifeng: Wang Yuanqi, one of the "Four Kings" in the early Qing Dynasty, said: "Antiquities are borrowed from the realm. "I borrowed his artistic point of view, which means that in the creation of porcelain sculptures, we should borrow from the past and the present, but the interpretation of classics and traditions is different in different eras. The inheritance of porcelain sculpture art from the Qing Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty has also changed with the times, and our era is facing the reconstruction of knowledge creation by artificial intelligence. Although the "He School" shape is a classic schema. But when we make porcelain sculptures, we must integrate them into our own understanding. For example, to be Guanyin, we should pay attention to her charm and interior. On my statue of Guanyin, I inherited the "Xingtai Guanyin" face opening skills, pay attention to the plump and vivid flesh and bones of the characters, and see the bones from the face, so that the expressions of the characters reflect the unity of divinity and human nature, and highlight the real sense of detail in the kindness and solemnity. The delicate and delicate folds of the hair and the ribbons make the static sculpture show a dynamic and flowing feeling. People often ask me what kind of mood I have when I make Guanyin, so that I can make such a non-mortal demeanor. I think that the image of Guanyin should be shaped as a kind mother, and maternal love should be infused into the work.
At present, there is a problem in our Dehua porcelain sculpture creation: just a shallow copy of the classic works, in vain, in a best-selling Buddha motif on the motif of the continuous mass production, such as just the Guanyin of the magic instrument, the movement of the hands and feet to make a little adjustment to become a new work, these are mostly to cater to the market, to facilitate the industrial process of the product decomposition, mass production, I think is a passive production, rather than artistic creation, because the product and the work between the lack of the artist's spirit, this is an insurmountable gap.
Yin Shuyu: As the representative inheritor of Dehua porcelain firing skills, a national intangible cultural heritage project, what work have you done in the inheritance and innovation of porcelain sculpture skills?
Xu Ruifeng: As the inheritor of national intangible cultural heritage, it is our duty to teach the Dehua porcelain firing skills to young people. I have also done some work over the years: first of all, I was hired as a visiting professor by Fujian Provincial Business School, Quanzhou Academy of Arts and Crafts, Quanzhou Institute of Information Engineering and other universities, and walked into the school to teach and pass on art. Secondly, I serve as the chairman of the Dehua County Ceramic Art Master Alliance, promote the growth of young craftsmen, and also participate in national professional exhibitions, such as the China Arts and Crafts Expo, to tell the story of intangible cultural heritage and spread the culture of Dehua ceramics. In addition, I have long been committed to completing the dream of "Taifeng Art Museum", collecting the works of Xu's ancestors, displaying and inheriting skills in the art museum, inviting well-known artists to enter the museum, hoping that more people will understand "Xu's porcelain sculpture" and know Dehua porcelain. Finally, Dehua County and the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University and other units co-sponsored the "Second Dehua 'China White' Chinese Traditional Ceramic Art Biennale" to encourage Chinese ceramic artists to create ceramic art works with profound traditional meaning and Chinese contemporary cultural spirit, and also invited Professor Bai Ming and many other famous ceramists to Dehua to teach and guide.
Xu Fei: As an important representative of excellent ceramics in mainland China, how to innovate in inheritance with the progress of process technology?
Xu Ruifeng: The innovation drive of Dehua porcelain sculpture should be divided into two types: internal and external, in addition to the artist's improvement of his own cultural accomplishment and technical attainments, but also the healthy and sustainable development of the industry. We believe that porcelain sculpture is one of the plateaus in ceramic creation, and now Dehua has gathered many excellent arts and crafts artists to form a relatively stable creative team. The industry has a scale, but also need the supporting support of policies and funds, and the county issued the "Ten Measures to Build a White Porcelain Art Brand in Dehua County" is a timely rain, which provides a policy guarantee for Dehua to absorb outstanding talents, protect intellectual property rights, and engage in porcelain and plastic creation with peace of mind. The next question is how to use new technologies to assist artistic innovation in Dehua porcelain sculpture practitioners. Of course, I still have some personal thoughts about technological progress, and the inheritance of skills needs to be deeply integrated into the development of science and technology, and it should change with the times. We learned that 3D printing technology can digitally quantify modeling, and is gradually challenging traditional creative thinking. The creation of porcelain sculpture can try to draw on the synthesis technology of artificial intelligence to reproduce the production process of Dehua porcelain sculpture master in real scenes, so as to realize information sharing in different time and space. As long as I make a prototype in Dehua, I can directly generate a replica of the prototype in the art exchange at home and abroad through 3D printing technology, so that the other party can feel the charm of the latest works more intuitively. However, there is still a qualitative difference between the concept of porcelain between 3D printed replicas and handmade works fired in kilns, and it will take time to explore the integration of new technologies with ceramic innovation.
Xu Ruifeng, Heavenly Maiden Scattered Flowers, Ceramic, 60×45×100cm, 2015
Yin Shuyu: What is the difference between porcelain sculpture and other ceramic crafts, such as Jingdezhen porcelain sculpture and Yixing purple sand sculpture process?
Xu Ruifeng: I try to answer this question with the clue of the academic context. From the point of view of the academic context, Jingdezhen porcelain, Yixing purple sand sculpture and Dehua have a lot of origins, "He School" porcelain style from the Ming Dynasty after Wanli to the outside of the flow, its path is related to the migration of artists, such as the three Zheng brothers in the late Ming Dynasty, the eldest son of You and Chen Shandong in the late Qing Dynasty, etc., until now some artists in Jingdezhen are also copying Dehua porcelain. It can be said that the "He School" porcelain style has always been one of the models for learning in various places. Jingdezhen established a state-owned sculpture porcelain factory and art college after the founding of New China, accepted the education system of the Academy of Fine Arts, and mainly created porcelain sculptures with historical themes, and it can be seen from the style of Jingdezhen porcelain sculpture works that it has been deeply influenced by modern sculpture education, and the figure treatment focuses on anatomy, shape and proportion, and the shaping method is also different from the tradition of Jingdezhen Hutian kiln in the Song and Yuan dynasties. On the other hand, the main themes of modern Dehua porcelain sculptures include Buddhist statues, Taoism and local gods, animal images, etc. Its main style is clear, and it still inherits the essence of the "He School" technique, which we summarize as pinching, molding, carving, carving, carving, carving, pushing, connecting and repairing. The subject matter is more life-oriented, interesting and folklore-oriented, and the theme of Confucianism and Taoism is broadened on the basis of tradition. I don't know much about Yixing purple sand sculptures, but I still know a little about the interaction between Dehua porcelain sculptors and Yixing. Chen Qitai, a master of porcelain sculpture in Dehua, has used purple clay to make many porcelain sculptures of Buddhist figures, such as "Crossing the River Dharma" as an export product exported to the United States. Professor Wang Zejian, who worked in the Dehua Porcelain Factory, went to Yixing in the 80s of the 20th century to create a series of glazed pottery figure sculptures, such as "Tianwen 1" and "Song of the Great Wind", which are now collected in the Yixing Ceramics Museum. In addition, there are masters such as Li Guozhang of Dehua Second Porcelain Factory, who are masters of purple sand sculpture.
Xu Fei: What suggestions do you have for the future development of porcelain sculpture?
Xu Ruifeng: We should always keep in mind the original intention and mission of the inheritors of intangible heritage, deeply cultivate the traditional culture of Dehua, and carefully sort out the historical context of Dehua porcelain. As Mr. Qiu Chunlin said: "Dehua is currently weakening the inheritance of traditional ceramic sculptures, and how to inherit it is worth everyone's reflection." First of all, we must realize what is the most beautiful thing in the tradition, and only after a deep understanding can it be possible to pass it on. "The tradition of Dehua ceramics should be a dynamic tradition based on cross-cultural communication and changing with the times, rather than a static and rigid tradition, and contemporary porcelain artists often lack in-depth thinking about this issue.
In addition, the creation of porcelain sculpture is placed in the "Belt and Road" development strategy, and the exchange of ceramic art between China and foreign countries is promoted from a more international perspective. Contemporary Chinese porcelain sculpture presents a pattern of diversified development. College students, intangible cultural heritage inheritors, arts and crafts artist system is the three main systems of porcelain sculpture creation, in the future should strengthen the integration and exploration of new technologies, participate in art exhibitions to establish academic reputation, and form a distinctive artistic style. (This article was compiled by Pen Tan and reviewed by Xu Ruifeng)
(This article was originally published in Art Observation, Issue 2, 2024)