DThe Chinese celadon of the 12th and 13th centuries became a milestone in the history of ceramics with its emerald-like blue-green glaze.Since they are extremely rare, they are just doing Ruci It has been a sensation in the past few years and has achieved millions of sales at auctions. Longquan celadon is hardly so iconic. It originated in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) in Zhejiang. To this day, these thick glaze works with amazing effects have not lost their charm and stimulating potential. Even laymen will marvel at the nuances and picturesque cracks in colors such as “sky blue after rain” or “plum green”.
In the era of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the ancient handicrafts and techniques were revived, but to a large extent the West did not notice it. The famous royal oven was developed archeologically. Since 1956, nine antique dragon furnaces and a modern celadon factory have been built in Longquan. In the 1980s, the shift from these wood-fed giants to smaller, easily adjustable gas stoves, coupled with the privatization of production as part of economic reforms, led to a surge in innovation, but it was also a time of crisis.Today, the traditional celadon distillation technique comes from Unesco It is recognized as human intangible cultural heritage; In addition, Longquan masters have also been awarded national and regional honorary degrees.
The pinnacle of the art universe
In this close-knit community, the core figures including family members are the “Master of Porcelain Art” and the “Living National Treasure” Mao Zhengcong (born 1940), who has been actively promoting the development of Longquan for decades. At the same time, generations of potters have risen, and their art is increasingly seeking international recognition. After initial exhibitions at the Berlin Forum Factory (2015) and the Westwald Ceramic Museum (2017), curator Anette Mertens and ethnologist Mareile Flitsch developed a larger exhibition of Longquan contemporary celadon. The second stop after the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich is now the Five Continents Museum in Munich.
Artwork: Mao Weijie’s celadon artifact (“Powerful Fish Scale Pattern”).
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Image: Franka Walter, 2018
You can see more than fifty unique utensil figures, which drew connoisseurs’ thoughts in particular. The selection and arrangement of the works follow the masters’ self-evaluation of their works and the evaluation plan that the exhibition aims to convey. Visitors guided in this way gradually realized the two poles of the art universe: glazes and fragments, rotating and freely designed forms, painting effects and plastic applications, abstract decorations and figurative reliefs, large lines or the most exquisite flakes The crack net and palette, in addition to blue and green, also includes the often forgotten beige.
Dialogue with the past
Those who like the classics can linger in the almost Bauhaus-style simplicity of the “Clear Water Moonlight” can (Xu Jianxin) or the vase with the phoenix handle, almost repeating a model from the song era (Jiang Xiaohong). The bowl of “Little Monkey Looking at the Moon” (Jiang Feiyi) proves the wit of the narrative and the freshness of youth. Like a strange petrified melon, but full of solemnity, a covered vase “Powerful Fish Scale Turtle” occupies the room (Mao Weijie).
In this sense of richness, the corona-related compromise is worth criticizing: with the cooperation of the master, the lighting could have been set better, just like in Zurich. You can touch the material samples provided in the concept, so the tactile dimension of the entire celadon becomes a victim of infection protection.At least Master Li Zhen explained the meaning of the broken pieces found in the old oven in a video, and the experts “readable” and allowed dialogue with the past, just like Edmund DeVal did in the video “White Horse Road” describe. The value of local resources has become clear. In addition to archaeological sites, the most important are raw materials, commonly known as the earth, and the landscape as an aesthetic resonance space.
The Munich exhibition is not a harmless show, but very political. In the preface of the catalog, Mao Zhengcong mentioned the “New Silk Road”. The exhibition of historical celadon exhibited at the Palace Museum in Beijing two years ago is also based on the theme of globalization. The tension between world-worthy tournaments and the global network of production relations involves a general question: what traditional skills do we want to preserve as cultural assets-why? Mao Zhengcong’s granddaughter returned to the traditional pottery industry after obtaining a promising bachelor’s degree in 3D animation. She confidently concluded: “Learning from our ancestors to make Longquan celadon perfect again is my inner concern.”
The focus is on celadon. Longquan jade and its master. The Five Continents Museum in Munich; ends in March 2022. From September 17th to 19th, curator Anette Mertens will have a theme weekend. The catalog price is 48 Euros.
