Gu Jingzhou

Purple-red tone artist Gu Jingzhou
Surname	Jingzhou 景 舟
family name	Gu 顾
birthday	October 18, 1915
died on	06/03/1996
place of birth	Yixing Jiangsu
Name of his wife	Xu Yibao
child	no
title	Master of Chinese arts and crafts (1982) Great Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts (1988)

Gu Jingzhou (born October 18, 1915 in Yixing ; † June 3, 1996 ) was a Chinese master potter and artist. He became known for his Yixing teapots , traditional unglazed teapots made from the violet-brown colored Zisha clay ( Chinese  紫砂 , pinyin zǐshā , 'purple sand') . Gus teapots are very popular with Chinese museums and art lovers and have achieved top prices of up to two million dollars in auctions.

Naming in Chinese

In addition to his actual name, Gu Jingzhou also bears the following: Man Xi (曼希), Shou Ping (瘦 萍), Wu Ling Yi Ren (武陵 逸 人) and Jing Nan Shan Qiao (荆南 山 樵). He referred to himself as Hu Sou (壶 叟, old teapot artist) and Lao Ping (老 萍). It is also listed as the " Tai Shan mountain in teapot art" (the Tai Shan is a respectful term for outstanding writers, artists, actors, scientists, etc.).

Life

Artistic beginnings

At the age of 18, Gu took over his grandmother's family business, which was focused on the manufacture and sale of ceramics. His manual skills did not go undiscovered for long and so it happened that at the age of 20 he worked for the antique dealer Liangshi Yi Yuan in Shanghai. Here he had the opportunity to study original collectibles of Zisha art and to explore the artistic styles. As part of his training, he also made reproductions of ceramics from the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty , which were later sold to private individuals. Since its replications could hardly be distinguished from the original works of art, some of these copies were found in the Palace Museum in Beijing and in the Nanjing Museum as apparent originals. A coincidence, however, made it possible for Gu to recognize his own works during a review work in the museum and to inform the museum about them. This event marked one of the most important turning points in his career.

Business development

In October 1954, Gu co-founded the Shushan Ceramic Industry Cooperative and held many practical seminars in the following years with the aim of copying more original works of art from earlier dynasties. From 1956 he was a technical production consultant for the provincial government of Jiangsu and took part in the national arts and crafts congress several times, whereupon his influence also increased in Hong Kong , Macau , Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Three years later, he became assistant director of research and technology for purple clay at the Yixing-Zisha Factory . In the same year he was commissioned to decorate the Great Hall of the People in Jiangsu with his works of art (such as teacups or flower vases).

Assumption of advisory functions

From 1975 he worked as a contact person for archaeological excavations of clay furnaces, as they were used in earlier dynasties, in order to determine the architecture and its application for the creation of ceramics. Thus he wrote numerous reports in magazines about the history of Zisha art.

From 1980 he led seminars for Zisha-Ton with the task of making further copies of earlier works of art. This commission was given to him by the Hong Kong art collector Dr. Kuei-hsiang Lo, who also commissioned Gu to appraise around 200 pieces from his art collection.

Establishment of the Yixing ceramics

In 1982 Gu was loosely translated as "junior master" and in 1989 "senior master" of handicrafts for Yixing ceramics. During this time, Gu's increased advertising enabled the Yixing ceramics to develop from normal industrial goods to collector's items.

In 1985, Gu became director of the Yixing Ceramics Institute. In the same year, the ceramics from Yixing also gained fame in the rest of China, as they won the silver medal among the Chinese types of ceramics. Four years later, they achieved the gold medal, and the Fangyuan brand developed from the Yixing ceramics. In April 1988, Gu was awarded the title of Master of Chinese Handicrafts.

Four years before his death, Gu published the article "Introduction to the History of Yixing Ceramics" and an encyclopedia about Yixing ceramics, in which he wrote down his practical experience and knowledge.

Gu Jingzhou was a member of the Chinese Society of Fine Arts and a member of the master craftsmen of China . He received the title of Master of Chinese Craftsman for his work, and his achievements and honors as a craftsperson are seen as comparable to the appreciation of artists from the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century.

Works

Some of his works are called the Teapot of the Promising Clouds , Han Square Teapot and the Snowflake Teapot . He also worked with the artists Jiang Hanting, Wu Hufan, Yaming and Han Meilin.

In 2010, a 1948 teapot sold for two million dollars at the China Guardian auction in Beijing, making Gus teapots the most expensive in the world. Auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's in Hong Kong also offer Gus works of art.

History of the Ti-Bi teapot

Ti-Bi teapot ( Chinese  提 壁 壶 , Pinyin ti bi hu ), 1978

In 1955 the "Yixing Shushan Ceramic Production Cooperative" was established. Artists Ren Jinting , Gu Jing Zhou, Wang Yin Chun and Jiang Rong joined the cooperative as technical consultants. In 1956, Yin Chun Wang, Wu Chun Gen, Gu Jingzhou, Zhu Kexin, Jiang Rong and others became known as "Zisha Clay Artists".

Zhu Kexin introduced Gu to Gao Zhuang , who teaches at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts . This also dealt with the design of teapots. In the fall of 1956 they discussed the different shapes of the Zisha teapots. Gu claimed that among the many varieties of tiliang ("high beam") teapot, the most important work was the tiliang teapot by Shao Xu Mao of the Qing Dynasty. Gao Zhuang, on the other hand, was of the opinion that the Tiliang teapot by Mao Xu is also a masterpiece, but the famous "Tian Xiang Ge-Dabin-Tiliang teapot" in the Nanjing Museum by Shi Dabin from the Ming Dynasty is the most important Work of its kind. According to Gao, the body and handle of the teapot are doubly circular. The foot also consists of double circles.

Gu had the idea to design his own Tiliang teapot. A first sketch was drawn up by Gao. Gu Jingzhou modified his design again and again until the first copy was finished in the winter of 1956. In May 1957, Gao once again examined Gus Tiliang's teapot. But Gu was not yet satisfied with the design and wanted to improve it further: According to his imagination, the body of the Tiliang teapot was too straight, it could not be held easily in the hand. The handle was too shallow and consequently too uncomfortable; after all, the spout was still too wide and its angle too small, so that the tea flowed out too quickly when it was poured.

Between late 1957 and early 1958, Gu redesigned his teapot. Her body was now slightly curved and had a concave shoulder and stomach line. The jug was better in the hand now. At the end of 1960 and again in 1973, Gu changed the shape of his Tiliang teapot again. Essential to Gu's style was to condense the shape of the teapot. Gu combined the traditional forms of the Zisha pot and the jade style. The biggest change concerned the lid, which now has the shape of a bi-disk . His apprentice Gao Hai Zeng was given the task of collecting information about bi-disks. The new design was called the "Bi-Disc Tiliang Teapot".

Between late 1976 and 1978, Gu reworked his Tiliang teapot for the fourth time. His knowledge of the bi-disc was to be brought into a form that matched his philosophy of simple elegance: every line, every side, every part and every detail was designed according to the properties of the old jade disc (moist, smooth, pure, etc. .) designed. In the summer of 1978, and after four changes, Gu had finally finished his work. It was officially named "Ti Bi Hu" ( Chinese  提 壁 壶 , Pinyin ti bi hu , high-bar bi-disc teapot). In China today this teapot is also called the “treasure of China”. A tea set made from a Ti-Bi Hu and 5 tea cups by Gu achieved a price of CNY 17,825,000 (approx. EUR 2,228,000) at the 2011 Poly International auction in Beijing.

literature

• Chunfang Pan: Yixing Pottery: The World of Chinese Tea Culture Arts of China. Long River Press, 2000, ISBN 978-1-59265-018-7 , pp. 28-31.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} artinfo.com: How a Chinese Teapot Fetched $ 2 Million (accessed December 16, 2012).
2. ↑ tianfeidi.com: Gu Jingzhou the Teapot Collection auction, Gu Jingzhou Teapot transaction price (accessed 24 October 2012).
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Chunfang Pan: Yixing Pottery: The World of Chinese Tea Culture . Long River Press Publishing House. 2004, p. 28
4. ↑ globethesis.com: Research On Artistic Style Of Purple Pottery Pot Of Gu Jingzhou (accessed December 30, 2012)
5. ^ Kuei-hsiang Lo: The stonewares of Yixing: From the Ming period to the present day . Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong 1986, ISBN 978-962-209-112-2 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
6. ↑ teapot-collection.com: Contemporary Ancestors of Purple Clay Masters (accessed December 18, 2012).
7. ↑ Shi Dabin's Tiliang teapot in the Nanjing Museum  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , dead link (January 29, 2018)  
8. ↑ artron.net: auction results Ti-Bi Set (accessed December 28, 2012)
9. ↑ sina.com: Favorites Gu Jingzhou ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed December 28, 2012)