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chinese clay art news 0409, jingdezhen fair special,introduce to yixing

updated fri 3 sep 04

 

clayart chinese on wed 1 sep 04


CHINESE CLAYART, September 2004, Vol. 40.
Jingdezhen Special $1,750, Introduce to Yixing, and Letter from Richard
Notkin
To be removed from this list, please click reply and send.
Int'l Teapot Conference Yixing 2005, Jingdezhen 1st International Ceramics
Fair, Back-to-School Sale of Chinese Clay Art.
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"CHINESE CLAYART" is a newsletter emailed bi-monthly to professional
artists, curators, collectors, writers, experts, educators, and students in
the ceramic field who want to know about ceramic art in China and things
related. This newsletter will be a bridge between China and Western
countries for the ceramic arts. Comments and suggestions are very welcome.
(Copyright (c) 2004, The Chinese Ceramic Art Council, USA. All rights
reserved.)
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The Chinese Ceramic Art Council, USA
P.O. Box 1733, Cupertino, CA 95015, USA
Tel. 408-777-8319, Fax. 408-777-8321
Email: chineseclayart@hotmail.com.
Web: www.chineseclayart.com
Chief Editor: Guangzhen "Po" Zhou
English Editor: Deborah Bouchette
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LETTER from Guangzhen Zhou, the director of Chinese Ceramic Art Council USA.
Jingdezhen Ceramic International Fair Special. Sponsored by the Chinese
government, the Jingdezhen International Ceramic Fair is coming soon. To
ensure to get enough participants for this group within few weeks, we
decided to offer the special scholarship $600-$800 for every participants.
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CONFERENCE and TRAVEL
Jingdezhen Ceramic International Fair Special
Partially sponsored by the Committee of Jingdezhen Ceramic International
Fair and China Tour. Application deadline: September 15, 2004.
Cost includes: International round trip flight, in-country transportation,
three meals each day and lodging (twin sharing, three star hotel), museums
tickets, tour guide/English interpreter.

Cost Excluding: Visa application (You may send your passport to Guangzhen
"Po" Zhou, director of the Chinese Ceramic Council, USA with $60 if there is
no Chinese consulate near your hometown), the U.S. domestic fights,
International Airport taxes (US $12, onetime when departure from home
flight), personal phone calls and other services. Single supplement: $40 per
day.

Plan A.
Oct. 6-18, Shanghai, Yixing and Jingdezhen. 13 days. Fee: $1,750. (original
was $2,350).
Oct. 6, Departure from the west cost of the US, or your home country,
Oct. 7, arrive Shanghai,
Oct. 8-9, Shanghai Museum, Yu Garden and the market, and ceramic art
galleries. Boat on Huangpu River.
Oct. 10, tours in Yixing. National masters' studio, dragon kiln, purple sand
factory, teapot market,
Oct. 11, tours in Yixing and bus leave to Nanjing in the afternoon. Take
overnight train to Jingdezhen,
Oct. 12, arrive in Jingdezhen in the morning,
Oct. 12-15, International Jingdezhen Ceramics Fair,
Oct. 16, take overnight train from Jingdezhen to Shanghai,
Oct. 17, Shopping and relax in Shanghai,
Oct. 18, departure from Shanghai, home flight to US.

Plan B.
Oct. 6-22, Shanghai, Yixing, Jingdezhen, Xi'an and Beijing. 17 days. Fee:
$2,350. (original was $3,150).
Oct. 6, Departure from the west cost of the US, or your home country,
Oct. 7, arrive Shanghai,
Oct. 8-9, Shanghai Museum, Yu Garden and the market, and ceramic art
galleries. Boat on Huangpu River.
Oct. 10, tours in Yixing. National masters' studio, dragon kiln, purple sand
factory, teapot market,
Oct. 11, tours in Yixing and bus leave to Nanjing in the afternoon. Take
overnight train to Jingdezhen,
Oct. 12, arrive in Jingdezhen in the morning,
Oct. 12-15, International Jingdezhen Ceramics Fair,
Oct. 16, bus to Nanchang, flight to Xi'an.
Oct. 17, Visit Terri-cotta Warriors Museum and antique market,
Oct. 18, visit Chenlu, a historical ceramics village,
Oct. 19, overnight train to Beijing, (Z20, 19:23-06:53).
Oct. 20, Great wall in the morning and exchange with faculty and students at
The Center Academy of Fine Arts in the afternoon,
Oct. 21, visit Tainanmen Square and Ancient Palace Museum/the Forbidden
City, and gifts shopping in the afternoon,
Oct. 22, departure from Beijing, home flight to US.
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CONFERENCE AND EVENT
International Ceramic Art Conference, Yixing 2005, June 2-4, 2005
Dear Friends:
I am sending this message to some ceramic artists to join me, with the
excellent tour host and guide (and ceramic artist and author), Guangzhen
"Po" Zhou, for an incredible three-plus week tour of various ceramics venues
in China in the late spring/early summer of 2005. The
tentative dates of the tour are approximately May 28 or 29 through June 20
or 21. The exact dates are still being determined.

The focus and highlight of the tour will be a major ceramic art conference
in Yixing, June 2-4. This is the reason I have assembled the list of people
that are currently being invited to join this tour, as all will be giving
slide lectures at the Yixing conference. To ensure that the conference in
Yixing will be of great value to the cultural exchange between Chinese and
Western ceramic artists, we are inviting a top roster of the most respected
artists from China and the West.

There will also be an exhibition in the museum in Yixing, and each
participant will be asked to bring a piece for the exhibition. (The pieces
can be small, as they will be exhibited in glass cases along with many
teapots of the Yixing artists, and to facilitate their transport to Yixing.)

The tour venue will begin with about three days touring Shanghai, with day
trips to the incredible Shanghai Museum of Art, the best museum of Chinese
art, historical through the present, that I have ever seen. There will also
be visits to at least one University art department and/or the Pottery
Studio (a resident artist program), antique markets, a tour of the Bund and
a boat ride in Shanghai harbor.

>From Shanghai, a three-hour bus ride will take us to Yixing, the birthplace
of the teapot. The three-day conference will include slide lectures of
Yixing and Western teapot artists, demonstrations of traditional Yixing
teapot techniques, a gala opening of the exhibition, and incredibly opulent
Chinese banquets, with unending mounds of exotic foods, attended by some of
China's most renown artists and local dignitaries. There will also be
visits to a teapot factory, and several Yixing artists' studios, probably Xu
Xiu Tang, Zhou Dingfang, Luo
Xiaoping, and others. A visit to the bamboo forest where parts of
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was filmed will also be an added delight...

Following Yixing, we will travel to Jingdezhen, the Porcelain Capital of the
World, where we will conduct slide lectures at the great Jingdezhen Ceramics
Institute, meet with ceramic artists, and tour schools, the San Bao Village
and several factories. Another antiques market is in the heart of
Jingdezhen.

>From Jingdezhen, we will take four-hour bus to Nanchang and take airplane
>to
Xi'an, where we will view the incredible Terra Cotta Army of over 7,000
figures. A day visit to the terraced mountaintop ceramics-producing village
of Chenlu will probably also be included.

An overnight train will take us to Beijing, where we will visit the Beijing
Academy of Art and Design, and present slide lectures to the students. A
visit to the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the "Dirt Market" and the
lively nightlife of contemporary Beijing will round out the tour prior to
flying back to the U.S.

All trains are booked for first class cabins, with four bunks in each cabin.
It is a very comfortable way to travel, and the Chinese landscape is
mesmerizing. The hotels are three and four star, very comfortable and
air-conditioned, with safe and delicious food. I have
traveled this route several times, and with Guangzhen "Po" Zhou in 2001, and
I can highly recommend his good care and knowledge of the areas we will be
touring. His connections with artists and schools is an invaluable part of
this great and educational journey. As China is rapidly changing, this is a
good opportunity to view the traditional ceramics workshops and factories,
while they still exist.

The tour includes all travel, including airfare between the U.S. and China,
buses and trains. All hotels, all meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner each
day, in traditional Chinese cuisine) and admission to the conference and
various museums on the itinerary are also included. The
cost will be approximately $2,900 per participant. I am inviting you now, so
that those of you who are employed in colleges and universities can apply
for travel grants to cover the costs of the tour. I wish that I could offer
honorariums and all that, but the institutions in China are not yet capable
of doing so. They will, however, make our stay quite memorable, and honor
our presence and cultural exchange. I guarantee a valuable and enlightening
journey.

If you are interested, please contact me soon. As I assemble a list of the
participants, I will get back to you with a more detailed and exacting
schedule, including the full cost. If you wish to recommend other artists
who you feel would be strong additions to the conference
in Yixing and tour, please send me their names and e-mail addresses.
Thank you.

I look forward to some rewarding and exciting travel in China with a great
group of artists in the spring of 2005. Be well and productive, and keep in
touch.

Sincerely,

Richard Notkin, Co-Chairman
International Ceramic Art Conference, Yixing China 2005
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Introduce to YIXING
Yixing - the Pottery Capital of China and the Teapot Center of the World
Yixing is a city situated on the western side of Lake Taihu, in the
southeastern province of Jiangsu, the delta of Yangtze River, and about four
hours' driving distance from Shanghai. The area also called "Fish and Rice
Countryside of Jiangnan (Southeast of Yangtze River)". It is one of the
richest areas of Eastern China.

According to the history source, the ceramic production history can be
traced to 7,000 to 8,000 years ago in Yixing area. It started producing
celadon ware during the Han and Jin Dynasties, and a kiln site of the Tang
Dynasty has been excavated in the area. Today, Yixing ceramics can be
divided into five categories, also called the Five Golden Flowers: Zisha,
Jing-Tao (white dinner ware), Cai-Tao (multi-colored ceramics), Jun-Tao
(also called Jun glazed ware) and celadon. The purple sand teapots of Yixing
might be the most well known in the world.
The purple-brownish highly iron contend clay is called "Purple Sand"
(Zisha), which mine in the Huang Long (Yellow Dragon) Mountain at Dingshu
Town mainly made into the unglazed, palm size, stoneware teapots became
well-known in the world since Ming dynasty (the late 16th century) and
Yixing city has been famous as the "Pottery Capital" of China and the
"Teapot Center of the world".

Yixing also attracts tourists with its famous bamboo forest, its tea
plantations, and its purple sand and caves (there are over eighty caves in
the mountain area).
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EXHIBITIONS
Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco Presents a Ceramic Exhibition of
Contemporary Yixing Master Works
PURPLE SAND, FRAGRANT TEA
750 Kearny Street, 3rd Floor (Chinatown Holiday Inn), San Francisco, CA
94108
July 30th - November 27th, 2004
Gallery Hour: 10:00am-4:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
Free Admission
Purple Sand or "zisha" refers to the dark purplish brown stoneware
associated with Yixing, China. Yixing or zisha ware, is often identified
with the simple, rustic teapots that gained recognition during the late Ming
period in the 16th century. Chinese tea connoisseurs consider Yixing
teapots the ideal tea making vessels, noting their ability to bring forth
the flavor, color and fragrance of the tea leaves. Tea tasting, along with
the literary pursuits of poetry, calligraphy, and painting were highly
esteemed by scholar gentry who gathered in this prosperous cultural and
commercial center during the Ming (1369-1644) and Qing (1644-1911)
dynasties.
"Purple Sand, Fragrant Tea" features over 30 outstanding contemporary
artists from Yixing. Included are the works of many senior masters still
active today. Many are honored as national arts and crafts masters. These
senior masters have in turn taught and encouraged new generations of younger
potters to perfect their craft, expand beyond conventional boundaries, and
seek inspiration from new sources. The exhibition focuses on masterworks
created by these young and older artists within the last four years. They
illustrate the vital, innovative spirit that persists in Yixing today. Those
teapots. These works are part of a travelling exhibition organized and
supported in part by the Chinese Ceramic Art Council, USA
(http://www.chineseclayart.com)
Free to the public, the exhibition will be on view from July 30th to
November 27th, 2004 at the Chinese Culture Center, 750 Kearny Street, 3rd
Floor, San Francisco, CA 94108. For more information, please call Mike
Curtis at (415) 986-1822 or email to mike@c-c-c.org.
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STORE-New products at Chinese Clay Art
Stamold: The name is combined from Stamp and Mold. This tool has two
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mold. Make a clay ball to match the size of the top of the Stamold. Place
the clay ball on the top. Score and moisture the surface where you are going
place on. Press Stamold onto the surface. Take away the extra clay around
and smooth out the area around.
Please check the details at www.chineseclayart.com.
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An earlier newsletter is on the Web at:
http://www.chineseclayart.com
THE END.
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