Preface of the Album of Painting for the 2008 First Shanghai International Modern Pot Art Biennial Exhibition
The 2008 First Shanghai International Modern Pot Art Biennial Exhibition opened. The exhibition was held in Shanghai Arts and Crafts Museum and Shanghai Handicraft Zhu Jia Jiao Exhibition Center, with the attendance of thirty-three ceramists from 32 countries all over the world invited by Ge, Jun on behalf of the local ceramists, from Shanghai Taoren Ge Ceramics Co. Ltd. The exhibition was like a small-scale Modern Pot Art World Expo where the pot artists talked about originality, arts, and techniques, through which the relations among them has been further enhanced. The ceramics culture of Chinese traditional arts and crafts enabled those ceramists from all over the world to conquer the language barrier and racial difference. In that way, the telepathy has been seen among them.
The exhibition activates people to realize that it is golden time for the development of the current arts and crafts in Shanghai. Beijing has just fulfilled the long-bearing dream of our nation in holding the 2008 29th Summer Olympic Games. Looking into the future, the 39th World Expo in Shanghai, China is approaching. It hits us that we’d better seize the day! Arts and crafts are the twin brother to traditional culture. Culture is the core of a city’s soft power while ceramics is one of the typical models of the-most-handy-featured handicraft. Ceramics has become a world language. The originated 2008 First Shanghai International Modern Pot Art Biennial Exhibition is a driven force for the rapidly developing arts and crafts in Shanghai.
The theme of this exhibition is “Open·Harmony·Happiness”. It is supposed to bring people happiness and enjoyment. I believe the exhibition, in the spirit of great breadth of mind, is a good way to develop the arts and crafts in Shanghai.
Curator of Shanghai Arts and Crafts Museum Zhu, Huiqing Autumn, 2008
Postscript of the Album of Painting for the 2008 First Shanghai International Modern Pot Art Biennial Exhibition
The Album of Painting for the 2008 First Shanghai International Modern Pot Art Biennial Exhibition has accomplished in the early autumn of Shanghai. It is the product of the joint-effort of colleagues from Shanghai Arts and Craft. Mr Ge Jun from the Shanghai Taoren Ge, the association member unit, plays a dual role. He is both the contract person for exhibition and one of the participating artists. We take it for granted that the First International Modern Pot Biennial Exhibition initiated in Shanghai, in that Shanghai takes the words “great breath of mind, pursuit of excellent, enlightened and sagacious, boundless tolerance and humble" as its city spirit. Shanghai Arts and Crafts Circle should exert the function of Shanghai as a megalopolis to study and communicate with the world. It should both invite in the artists nationwide and go out to the delta area of Yangzi River to learn. We are eager to build Shanghai as a converge and radiant point of Arts and Crafts Circle. Meanwhile, we should explore Secondary Innovation actively, bring Shanghai Arts and Crafts into full play in innovation, and make the originality more attractive. The 2008 First Shanghai International Modern Pot Art Biennial Exhibition is a beneficial attempt for this aim. “You can enjoy a grander sight, By climbing to a greater height” Finally, I represent Shanghai Arts and Crafts Association to gratitude all the colleagues and friends for their hard-working for album of painting and exhibition. And my sincere thanks also go to all the relative units that made contribution to the production of album of painting
President of the Shanghai Arts and Crafts Association Shen Guochen Autumn in 2008
The First International Modern Pot Art Biennial Exhibition The Exhibition Designer’s Remarks:
The Chinese character “壶” is a hieroglyph. We can see that the character itself has a narrow “neck” and a “round” belly, with “ears”, lid and base, which best resembles the figure of a stoup.
The history of using pots in China can be traced back to Shang Dynasty. The then artistic level of its shape and lettering decoration gradually developed into the fashion of using pots as an image in poetry and literature in Tang Dynasty and Soong Dynasty. For instance, “Among the flowers from a pot of wine, I drink alone beneath the bright moonlight.” from Li Bai’s poem, one of the most famous poet in Tang Dynasty, and “I mount Peak Cuiwei with a friend, a pot of wine in hand; Autumn scenery is reflected in the river while wild geese just headed for the south.” from Su,Shi’s poem who is a famous poet in Soong Dynasty.
Our forefathers made friends with pots in hand in the perplexing times. It’s really great to express their feelings by pots.
Practicability has been the sole theme in the pot art abroad for a long period. However, with European Renaissance and the development of various arts in modern times, the pot art abroad has seen a huge breakthrough on its shape and artistic value.
The pot art has gone through a long history of development and evolution before they become what they are today. Nevertheless, the pot is still the infinite vehicle for the creation and exploration of ceramics.
With the close exchange and communication on world level, there’s no boundary in pot creation, which made existence of some derivative art style and schools different from the previous ones. For some works, there’s no strong regional flavor to be found. It’s all about creation and thoughts based on ideology, so it works all over the world.
The modern creation of pot is no longer restricted to the combination of being practical and being artistic. In a pursuit of highlighting the pot itself, practicability could be given away so that artistic level could be further strengthened. Therefore some pots which can’t be recognized from its shape still belongs to pot art with their basic language and elements of pots. I have been exploring modern pot art and have set up studios both in Shanghai and Yixing, China. Shanghai is one of the creation bases for Chinese modern pot artists and I’m a member of Shanghai Arts and Crafts Association. In 2006, ten other pot artists from nine countries and I met in Zhu Jia Jiao, the ancient town in the south of Yangtze River, to exchange and communicate modern pot art.
Late of last year, Mr. Wu, Bin and I co-worked in planning and holding 2007 the First National Modern Pot Works Biennial Exhibition, which achieved great success. The exhibition is an epitome of the development of China’s modern pot creation. Having had exchanging and communicating with the excellent pot artists nationwide, I can’t wait to meet those from the other countries. Less than one year later, I came up with the idea of holding this biennial exhibition and invited pot artists from over thirty countries, including Mexico, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Singapore, Japan, Chile, Israel, Canada, etc.
The First International Modern Pot Art Biennial Exhibition was organized by Shanghai Arts and Crafts Association and Shanghai Arts and Crafts Research Institute. As a member of Shanghai Arts and Crafts Association, I am greatly honored to make my share of contribution to the association. I also hope to help promote the development and exchange of international modern pot art. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Shen, Guochen, president of Shanghai Arts and Crafts Association, for his whole-hearted support for this exhibition; my wife Zhang, Dawei for her handling of the details both for this exhibition and the communication among the pot artists from various countries. I would also like to express my gratitude to Mr. Yang, Zhi, who did a lot of translation with his solid ceramics and foreign language knowledge. He not only introduced to us many international pot artists and their works but also enabled us to study the pot artists’ original creating thoughts in the clearest way.
I look forward to meet you again in the next International Modern Pot Art Biennial Exhibition. Ge Jun |