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Official and Private Porcelain Kilns of Ancient China
 Pioneers of Expressionism and
Abstractionism
Traditional Chinese painting has experienced a course of development from a
strictly meticulous style to one of spontaneous expression, and from concrete to
abstract imagery. The emphasis in early Chinese paintings was on verisimilitude
of image and detailed depiction. Artists serving the Song court paid attention
even to the number of feathers they drew on a bird. Emperor Huizong not only
advocated fine brushwork, but was also himself a meticulous-style painter. For a
long time, this style dominated traditional Chinese paintings.
The appearance of spontaneous expression is generally associated with Wen
Tong and Su Shi from the Song Dynasty. Wen excelled at ink paintings of bamboo
and stressed that in order to paint bamboo, the painter must first have in his
mind the image of it that reflects his artistic concept, before actually
transferring this image to paper. Su Shi advocated "verisimilitude of spirit."
However, painted private kiln porcelain adopted a spontaneous style of
expression about 200 or 300 years before Wen and Su were born. The Tongguan Kiln
from the Tang Dynasty remained in production for over 300 years, but as a
private kiln, no record of it has been found. Archaeologists began excavating
its remains in 1979. There are remains of 19 kilns over a length of five
kilometers along the bank of the Xiangjiang River, and the firing area is
littered with numerous fragments of painted porcelain bearing motifs of human
and animal figures, flowers, plants, mountains, clouds, rivers, lakes, and
script patterns. These are largely in a style of spontaneous expression, with
cursive and freehand brushstrokes. The figures display vivid expression, but
lack verisimilitude. Wen and Su may have obtained their inspiration from such
painted porcelain.
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