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For Chinese pottery artist Zhu Legeng, the first day of the new
year has a special impact, as he stays at his personal exhibition
at China National Art Gallery, and received friends sharing the
same love for pottery with him.
"Look at this item, this one is made out of high temperature
which is very difficult to handle with," Zhu said to an old man,
who was looking at his works very carefully.
"Actually, I don't know this man, " Zhu told Xinhua, adding he
only wanted to share more with those who know something about
pottery.
Zhu's wife Fang Lili commented his enthusiasm in pottery as a
kind of "being obsessed". When they first get to know each other,
the only thing they did together when dating was to collect clay
and pick up broken pieces of pottery.
After their marriage, Fang recalled, Zhu went to Japan for
further study and returned with books on pottery.
"Zhu is born to be a pottery artist who always inspired others
with his inborn gift ".
Zhu, now 53-year old, was born in Jingdezhen city, known as
"capital of pottery" in east China's Jiangxi
Province. Zhu's father was also a well-known painter and
pottery artist. Zhu took part in pottery making and received
training on both Chinese traditional painting and western painting
styles when he was boy.
During the course of watching the pottery making by
old-generation potters, Zhu learned a lot of skills on folk pottery
art, which later helped him develop a unique style of his own based
on high-temperature pottery making.
At his personal exhibition, a series of photos attracted wide
attention from audience, which was about the pottery work Zhu made
for the inner and outside walls of the Wheat Music Hall in Seoul of
Republic of Korea (ROK). Zhu spent three years in developing a kind
of clay bricks that could combine a beautiful outlook and effective
echo function.
Zhu gradually made 54 tons of bricks out of 1,300 centigrade,
and install them into walls. These walls, giving a visionary effect
of a colored picture featuring traditional Chinese ink painting
style, also has strong echo effect that surpassed the professional
furnishing material.
Zhu's works have been exhibited in numerous domestic or
international ceramic art exhibitions; successively more than 40
works gained prizes.
Although many of his works were sold at high price, Zhu never
reproduce them. "Every piece of work coming out of fire is a
combination of nature and life. The copied ones will not have its
soul even with the same outlook."
Shao Dazhen, well-known art critic with the China Central
Institute of Fine Arts, said Zhu would have no boundary in his
artistic life just because he never repeats himself.
The sun shed its light on Zhu's work and made them look
brilliant in diversified colors. This visionary effect once again
pushed Zhu into a sense of "being obsessed", and made him more
confirmed of what he believed. " Pottery art should and will be
passed on generation by generation," Zhu said, gently touching his
works with his clay-colored fingers.
(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2006)
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