The exhibition at the Morris Museum "Harmony in Clay" of Song Ceramics from the Jiyuanshanfang Collection was aired on New York PBS Channel-Thirteen’s NYC-ARTS primetime program at 8:00 PM on May 3, 2012.

The Song Dynasty,

Song Ceramics

and

The Jiyuanshanfang Collection

      The fall of the Tang Dynasty (907) was followed by a period of devastating upheaval and chaos in the warlords-dominated regional states during the Five Dynasties (907-960). In his attempt to avoid dominance in politics by military forces, Emperor Zhao Kuangyin forged a new strategy of looking beyond the walls of martial governance by encouraging development of handicraft, science, education and culture after the founding of the Song Dynasty (960). Attracting talents, scholars and elites to the government formed a body politic that in turn boasted an unprecedented level of state patronage including the ceramic arts. The flourishing intellectual culture of the time led to consummate art forms and a booming ceramics industry with many kilns of renown that were producing ceramic products of an astonishing variety and quality. As a result, the Song period (960-1279) witnessed a brilliant explosion in technological ceramic advances and elegantly simple new styles, having created the perfection of taste that has been treasured ever since.

Emperor Zhao Kuangyin (927-976), founder of the Song Dynasty

      Decades have been spent for the formation of the Jiyuanshanfang Collection which embraces near-complete examples of Song Dynasty’s eight most prominent and complex kiln groups.  These examples include Ding, Cizhou, Yaozhou, Jun, Qingbai, Jian, Longquan and Jizhou, of the kilns whose wares fill the world’s private collections and museums because the wares from these kilns represent both imperial and non-imperial use and demonstrate the enormous varieties of shapes, glazes and designs created by the genius of the Song potters and artists.

      We are pleased to share the Jiyuanshanfang Collection with those who have been fascinated by Song ceramics, with the hope that these examples will contribute to an already extensive knowledge and appreciation of the eight major kiln groups that comprised the vast body of Song ceramics.

QINGBAI FIGUE OF GUANYIN

12^thCentury, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1179)

JUN PEAR-SHAPED VASE

11^th or 12^th Century, Northern Song (960-1127) or Jin Dynasty (1127-1234)

DING CARVED LAMP

11^th Century, Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127)



108 objects from the Jiyuanshanfang Collection

Exhibition at Morris Museum, New Jersey, USA

This article was published on May 2012's London Based monthly newspaper ASAIN ART, a popular and influential art newspaper among collectors, dealers, museums and galleries. The author is former director of Sotheby's New York Asian Department Mr. Martin Lorber.