Expressive Painting in Blue-and-White

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To make blue-and-white porcelain, white slip and cobalt pigment are first employed on the body of a clay vessel to render decorative motifs. Next, a layer of transparent glaze is applied all over the vessel before firing it once in a kiln. The cobalt will turn blue upon completion. The transparent coating protects the white slip and blue glaze from wearing, and this method is known as the underglaze technique.

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This type of cobalt blue pigment is known as the “underglaze blue”. The production of blue-and-white porcelain was successfully invented by the town of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province during the Yuan Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, Jingdezhen had already become the national center of porcelain production. Its blue-and-white porcelain surpassed all other competitors. Smaller kilns in Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong provinces scrambled to make blue-and-white porcelain; imitating the Jingdezhen style yet lacking the Jingdezhen quality. Therefore, Jingdezhen continued to lead in the production of blue-and-white porcelain.

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In producing porcelain ware for the Ming court, imperial kiln sites in Jingdezhen employed a type of imported cobalt pigment known as Samarra Blue which gave a rich and purplish shade of blue comparable to the imperial Yuan ware. In contrast, folk kilns could only produce lusterless inferior pieces. During the Chenghua era however, Jingdezhen switched to the use of a domestic cobalt that resulted in a paler shade. It was not until later times of Jiajing and Wanli eras that more choices became available such as the Muslim Blue imported from Central Asia which yielded a purplish brilliant blue shade. Unfortunately, the lustre vanished and dull colours resurfaced once again towards the late Ming period.

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Blue-and-white porcelain revved up its production in the early Qing Dynasty as the country gradually reached a period of stability. Glaze regained its shimmer and richness. It was also better purified; yielding more refined and stable tonalities. This explains the relatively stable colour range of the Qing blue-and-white ware.

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Life of a commoner centered around meals and tea time. Thus, the consumer demand for bowls was the highest. In the early Ming Dynasty, a stack of six to ten bowls were often placed inside a saggar, or a container made of clay, for firing. Since the bowls were stacked, this firing method left a spur mark around the central medallion inside the bowl known as the “unglazed ring”. This type of bowl has a heavily potted body with a thick foot and a stud located in the centre of the base. These studded unglazed ring bowls faded out in mid-Ming after potters started placing vessels in saggars one at a time. With this individual firing method, a more stable glaze colour was achieved.

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Decoration on folk blue-and-white porcelain can be divided into several stages: decors were realistic in the early Ming, then gradually turned simplistic, and later became elaborate in the Jiajing era. The late Ming saw another full cycle of changes from figurative to simplicity, and then steered towards abstraction. In other words, free-flowing bold distinct strokes seen in the early stage developed into more uniformly drawn lines.

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In addition to the rendering of texture, potters introduced tonal differences to their depiction using cobalt blue since the Chenghua era. This technique of producing an ink and wash painting was fully developed in the Qing period. Depicting a greater variety of compositions and themes drawn from daily life, blue-and-white porcelain evolved from bland and dull representations to an alternate vivid form of literati painting.

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Noticeably, the development of folk blue-and-white porcelain followed a similar path during the Ming and Qing periods. Both began with complete compositions and realistic depictions, then deteriorated to minimalism, abstraction or even sketchiness.

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In fact, folk kilns avoided employing elaborated brushwork and leaned towards an expressive or abbreviated style in order to maintain low production cost. In addition to using less refined clay and glazes, they also tried to minimize production time by rushing through the decoration. Although the painting looks rough with reduced brushwork, it surprisingly exudes a kind of expressive flavor: while motifs are turned abstract, the painting is imbued with a more evocative ambience and stronger resonance, an achievement totally unexpected for the folk kiln potters.

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Blue-and-white porcelain made by the Ming and Qing folk kilns were certainly low-end products. Yet, judging from present artistic standards, they belong to a different type of art: modern abstract paintings presented on ancient porcelain created by a group of neglected artists.

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YEUNG Chun Tong

Director