As far back as 9000 years ago, China ancestors engaged in fishing and hunting and agricultural production activities at the same time, and started the most primitive architectural activities. With the invention and use of fire, in the long-term labor practice of transforming nature, accompanied by numerous failures and successful experiences, they began to make and use pottery, an artistic creation that became one of the ancient cultures in China, and opened the "Neolithic Age" in the history of human development.
Although the forms and styles of pottery have changed due to the differences of times, regions or nationalities and other conditions, they all expressed their own spirit of the times, which was first manifested in the shape, decoration and texture of Neolithic pottery. In the middle of Neolithic Age, the greatest achievement of China pottery industry was painted pottery art, and the cultures of different regions interacted with each other, communicated with each other, or inherited and developed, thus forming a colorful artistic style in the long history of China.
Beauty comes from life. Pottery makers indirectly express people's thoughts and feelings from the perspective of expressing life, or directly describe the customs and styles of real life.
Following Yangshao culture with painted pottery as its culture, another Longshan cultural heritage with Shandong as its center appeared. The outstanding achievement of pottery industry in this period was the art of black pottery. The grey pottery surface of Longshan culture does not seek useless worship. It all depends on the black color of the container itself. It is in the best state of "total darkness". Sometimes the body is slightly decorated with concave-convex patterns or engraved holes combined with molding and firing, reflecting a simple and simple beauty.
White pottery appeared in Shang dynasty, imitating the patterns and shapes of bronze wares. At that time, it was a more luxurious craft than bronze ware, and its shape was almost all ritual vessels. What is particularly distinctive is the wavy thunder pattern, the hooked thunder pattern and a strange humanoid Yun Leiwen. It is a rare handicraft in human culture.
During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, there was no significant progress in pottery-making technology and no development in art. Since the Warring States Period, China has entered a long feudal society. The production of hollow bricks is an important creation of potters in the Warring States period.
As China is a vast multi-ethnic country, there are great differences in ceramic products due to different geographical locations or other factors. In terms of texture, the Baiyue area along the southeast coast of China is dominated by gray pottery, printed hard pottery and primitive pottery, while other areas are dominated by muddy gray pottery, followed by sand pottery.
Among daily-use pottery, clay-made gray pottery is the main one. The clay of gray pottery contains certain sand particles, which has high firing temperature and hard pottery, mostly gray or black gray. At the same time, printed hard pottery is widely used in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Guangdong and Guangxi in the Pearl River Basin. However, due to the rough texture of printed hard pottery, it is not suitable as an edible vessel, so it is mostly a container.
"When the six kings are finished, the four seas are one." Qin and Han Dynasties is also an important period in the development history of China ceramics. With its perfect artistic form and vivid expression, the pottery figurines in Qin Dynasty profoundly revealed the inner world of various figures, not only showed the long-standing realistic tradition and superb pottery-making level of ancient sculpture art in China, but also showed the world the profound national style of the Chinese nation.
In terms of painting style, painted pottery in the Han Dynasty changed the colorful and lively style of painted pottery in the Warring States period, and instead advocated dignified and elegant charm. The pictures are overwhelming and colorful.
Due to the prosperous development of economy, the long-term political stability and the rising national will in the Tang Dynasty,
All aspects of the Tang Dynasty were unprecedentedly prosperous and progressive, and the tri-colored pottery figurines and tri-colored pottery were the best performance of this prosperous Tang Dynasty in ceramic art. The tri-colored pottery figurines and tri-colored pottery were the artistic records of its production time and the customs of the Tang people's life.
The production of traditional pottery in China has a long history. It has a history of thousands of years and is still developing vigorously. The economic development, technological progress, different fashions of the times and aesthetic changes of the past dynasties are very prominent in pottery. Many scholars and artists at home and abroad attach great importance to the study of China traditional pottery. However, for a long time, the research on this traditional ceramic art, which integrates science and technology, culture and art, and reflects the aesthetic course of the Chinese nation, often stays in artistic modeling and decorative techniques, which is not comprehensive enough. An important feature of studying China traditional ceramic art is to summarize the fine tradition, production technology and decoration technology of China traditional ceramic art. "Tradition" does not belong to another name of old standardization, but refers to the characteristics of a craft and artistic system. The national characteristics formed by the Chinese nation in the long-term historical process are reflected in ceramic art, resulting in a unique national style. This national style shows its own style with its unique technology and artistic form. It is the crystallization of Chinese wisdom and a model of oriental culture.
The unique romantic style of oriental art in China traditional ceramic art was not formed in a short time. It is still rooted in the people, concentrating the wisdom and creativity of countless ceramic predecessors. Through the constant tempering of history, it has become a fine tradition, which runs through the national character and feelings, embodies the characteristics of national aesthetic consciousness and represents the spiritual essence of the nation. In the long-term practice, China ceramic predecessors have accumulated and formed a set of rich experience and created a variety of techniques. It is this fine tradition of making porcelain that has been passed down from generation to generation and continuously developed that has kept China ceramics in the leading position in the world for thousands of years, which has had a far-reaching impact on world culture.
The development of ceramic art is accompanied by the appearance of ceramics. First, it is to meet the needs of human practical functions. At the same time, on the basis of practicality, through modeling decoration and mud glaze flame, it is endowed with primitive simplicity and beauty, and then developed into a folk art with both practicality and appreciation. Now it has divorced from practical functions and started a pure artistic road from the emotional needs of pure spirit.
As a cultural system, artistic creation is not solidified at any time, but in an unstoppable state of development.
Similarly, pottery is no exception. Every dynasty, she has the characteristics of the times: the beauty of the Song Dynasty, the wealth of the Yuan Dynasty, the refinement of the Ming Dynasty and the exquisiteness of the Qing Dynasty. Even the same dynasty had different stages of development. For example, the blue-and-white porcelain of the Ming Dynasty is rich and colorful, full of charm, bold and vivid, and the blue-and-white porcelain of Chenghua is elegant and fresh, beautiful and delicate. Looking back on the development history of China ceramics, at any stage of each dynasty, almost all new varieties, new technologies and new styles of ceramic art appeared. For various reasons, these precious porcelain-making skills have been diluted or even lost in modern times. Therefore, it is not purely a technical and theoretical issue to study and summarize the manufacturing techniques and decorative techniques of China traditional pottery. It is related to whether China's ceramic art can remain artistic youth forever, and even to the image of China in the eyes of people all over the world.
Ceramic art has become synonymous with Chinese civilization in a sense. However, when China ceramists suddenly woke up from the words "tradition", "practicality" and "daily use" and re-examined the world, they found themselves behind. Indeed, modern ceramic art exists not only as a kind of arts and crafts closely related to people's daily life, but also beyond the concepts of practicality, beauty, economy and generosity. With its unique artistic language, it has been widely involved in the modern art movement and has become a sharp weapon for artists to express their thoughts and criticize culture.
China people began to pay attention to modern ceramic art and formed a scale in public opinion, which should be after the 1990s. Of course, strictly speaking, the origin of modern ceramic art in China is related to the earliest practitioners of the former Central Academy of Arts and Crafts (predecessor of Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts) and Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the past 20 years, Han Meilin, Zhou Guozhen, Zhu Danian, Yang Yongshan and other older generation ceramists have made useful attempts in the direction of modern ceramics, resulting in a large number of young and middle-aged ceramists with various styles and techniques, such as Lv Pinchang, Luo Xiaoping and Bai Ming. Most of them are university teachers, or influenced by traditional pottery with higher education. Therefore, China's ceramic art has an indissoluble bond with the Academy from the very beginning.
However, the pure college development is greatly restricted in concept and communication, and is also very narrow in academic level. In 1990s, 199 1 held the "Beijing International Ceramics Symposium", followed by 1995 held the "Jingdezhen International Ceramics Symposium". 1May, 1998, the' 98 China Yixing International Ceramics Seminar, which was planned by Luo Xiaoping and others, was held in Yixing. In the autumn of the same year, it was held in China. 1at the beginning of 999, the "Beyond Mud-Academic Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Ceramic Artists in China" planned by Zuo in Guangzhou Art Museum was even earlier. These important academic seminars show that ceramic art in China is on the rise, and its scale, scope and influence are expanding to the whole society.
United States of America
Since the pioneering era, Americans have had the revolutionary spirit of daring to explore, which has also profoundly influenced the history of American art. The reason why this young country can become the birthplace of modern ceramic art is also inseparable from it.
It is recognized by American ceramic circles that the expression of modern ceramic art forms began in 1954 when Peter walker taught ceramic art at the Los Angeles County Academy of Fine Arts (later changed to Otis Academy of Fine Arts). Peter Vauxs opposed the over-emphasis on the characteristics of craftsmanship in ceramic art creation, and advocated a creative style of returning to simplicity with randomness, thus opening up a road to explore novel modeling and appearance texture effects, which is called "Otis Ceramic Art Revolution" in history.
In the past 50 years, American modern ceramic art has made great progress. From the source, it was influenced by Japanese folk ceramics, American folk ceramics, China traditional craft modeling, modern art schools and other art forms, and formed a colorful situation in its creation. Abstract expressionism, extremism, surrealism, pop art and realism all have their representative artists and works; At the same time, as a container design, those elegant ceramics with more formal rules have also developed, which shows the great inclusiveness of American culture.
The greatest contribution of modern ceramic movement is to make ceramic art go beyond the narrow category of "arts and crafts" and combine it with mainstream artistic creation concepts such as painting and sculpture, thus enriching the history of traditional ceramic art; For ceramists, their status is not "artisans". They picked up an eternal material-ceramics, joined the mainstream artistic creation, carried out valuable cultural display and value criticism, and got rid of the shackles of "containers".
The United States is the birthplace of modern ceramic art, and it is very meaningful to introduce its historical development and famous artists.
Modern Times
However, as a new thing, there are still many problems in modern ceramic art, which constitute the present situation of China ceramic art in a greater sense and to a greater extent, and deserve our discussion. It boils down to the following questions for readers to ponder.
The gap between "tradition" and "modernity"
The relationship between "tradition" and "modernity" is an endless topic in today's art field, and pottery is not convenient. However, in many discussions about the transformation of ceramic art from "tradition" to "modernity", a very important issue, namely the function of ceramic art, has been neglected. It is not only related to the function and value of ceramics, but also related to the role of ceramics in the whole cultural system and the social orientation of ceramists. Only by putting it right, "What is modern ceramic art for?" Such a question is not just "What does modern ceramic art look like?" I think ceramic art can really move from "tradition" to "modernity".
China traditional pottery is attached to pottery, and "being as practical and beautiful as possible" has long restricted the development of contemporary China pottery. Under this concept, pottery can only belong to arts and crafts, and its functions are only practical and ornamental. In this case, the intelligence of ceramists is more limited by "making utensils" and can only be explored in the field of pursuing design and formal beauty. Pottery artists are also closer to craftsmen and cannot integrate into the trend of modern art.
The function of modern ceramic art lies in that it expands the artistic attributes of the original ceramic art, so that ceramists are not limited by "making utensils" and can be recruited in their aesthetic and value criticism fields. He can not only continue to do something in the original design field, but also give full play to his artistic nature and make valuable cultural criticism on reality, thus setting foot in many artistic fields such as sculpture and installation. It enriches itself and supplements other art categories, thus enriching the foyer of visual art.
Therefore, no matter how traditional pottery develops, it is bound by "utensils". In the development of modern ceramic art, the first thing we should do in understanding is to transfer the functional theory, so as to get rid of the dependence on "objects" and fixed shapes and truly move towards a broader world.
This gap can be solved by changing the concept, and its existence is also the driving force for the continuous development of contemporary ceramic art.
Limitations of communication and acceptance
After the reform and opening up, especially in the middle and late 1980s, many schools of modern art entered China like a storm. Although China people at that time did not appreciate it, and some even felt disgusted, they objectively acknowledged the rationality of its existence and approached them conceptually. Modern ceramic art has not caught up with that trend, and it seems that it has missed the golden age from the perspective of communication. Judging from the current situation, many people in the industry also pointed out that modern ceramic art has a good foundation only in a few porcelain producing areas and cities, such as Jingdezhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and other places. However, on the surface, its mass base is quite weak, and it has not cultivated a large-scale ceramic art appreciation group, which is not conducive to the development of modern ceramic art. We also notice that the daily-use ceramics and fine-art ceramics industries in China are not prosperous at present, so even in many traditional and profound porcelain fields, people's interest in ceramic art is weakening, which is very worrying.
On the other hand, the introduction of modern ceramic art in the media and newspapers is sporadic, not to mention special ceramic publications. Some ceramic studios are responsible for communication, but their role has not been taken seriously. People of insight pointed out that the premise of the overall development of a country's ceramic industry is to mobilize the power of the people, and a rising tide lifts all boats.
From the receiver's point of view, China people certainly don't lack feelings for ceramics, but they really can't talk about feelings for modern ceramic art, because most people's views on ceramic art are stuck in traditional concepts. Coupled with poor communication, it is naturally difficult to mobilize the taste of the audience.
However, if modern art can be accepted, it is only a matter of time before people accept modern ceramic art.
Theory is divorced from practice.
The disconnection between theory and practice has become a very prominent problem in modern ceramic art. Xia, a ceramist, said, "A group of people from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts invited an art critic from Central Academy of Fine Arts to comment on modern ceramic art.. He can comment on modern ceramic art with modern artistic concepts and modern philosophy. But I don't think this is enough. " He pointed out that it is difficult to form a modern ceramic critic because China's modern ceramic art is underdeveloped, and he thinks that theorists are very needed. The author once found a book called Modern Ceramic Art in the library of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In fact, the ceramics in the book are only ceramics made by modern "living people". It can be seen that modern ceramic art is quite scarce in theory, and the books that can be found to introduce modern ceramic art are also quite few and informal. It seems that the disconnection between modern ceramic practice and theory will become a headache for quite some time. Theoretical talents are in urgent need of training, so many ceramists put forward to do some theoretical research while practicing, which can be described as helpless.
In addition, there are some problems in the creation system, sales system and creation concept of modern ceramic art. Fortunately, from the words of contemporary ceramists, we can all appreciate the unique lofty ambition of China intellectuals, which is "a long way to go, and I will go up and down".