Zhang Shouzhi, 74, was exceedingly excited for a day: "Today is a historic moment. I'll never forget it."

The senior ceramist made the remark at the opening ceremony for the Exhibition of Modern Chinese Ceramic and Pottery Art 2006 at the National Art Museum of China in downtown Beijing on June 30.

For various reasons, Chinese ceramic and pottery art has been excluded from the categories of "fine arts" and instead labeled as "arts and crafts" under the category of "light industry products" over the past few decades, explained Zhang, whose artistic career started in the early 1950s.

"Finally, our works, churned out with our sweat, passion and wisdom, have been recognized as part of the country's fine arts," Zhang said.

Many of the exhibited works will be included in the permanent collection of China's top art museum for modern and contemporary art, he said.

Huge exhibition

Publicized as the largest and most inclusive exhibitions ever held in China, this one encompasses 230 pieces or sets of ceramic and pottery art works created by 163 artists.

These were carefully selected from some 1,450 entries that came from all over the country by a panel of art historians and veteran ceramists and potters. Since last September, the panel had traveled nationwide to meet local artists and select exhibits, according to the museum's Vice-Director Yang Bingyan, who headed the selection panel for the exhibits.

He said that the judging criteria for the exhibits range from the materials, techniques, modeling, decorations, cultural significance, to local cultural flavors, and the creators' personal styles.

The exhibition also features a special showcase for at least 40 modern ceramic designs from Chaozhou, South China's Guangdong Province, one of the emerging new forces in ceramic productions.

The art museum has dedicated eight of its spacious display halls to these exhibits.

To help visitors better understand the art show, the museum offers audio and touch-screen guides and videos about the history of Chinese porcelain and the featured artists.

In the display halls, lecturers will also guide the viewers through the key exhibits.

"The grand exhibition is a rare feast for the eyes for lovers of Chinese porcelain ware. And it will certainly change the way local audiences view the traditional art genre," said Qiu Gengyu, a ceramist and professor at Tsinghua University's School of Art and Design.

Among the exhibited works are not only representative works from major production bases for traditional porcelain ware, but also works from the younger generations of artisans, including teachers and students from ceramic art schools, colleges and private studios, said Qiu, who is a member of the selection panel.

It seems that the old masters are "tiptoeing the borderline between the traditional and the modern" as is illustrated by their displayed works.

Older generations of master ceramists such as Gao Zhuang (1905-86), Shi Yuren (1928-96), Gao Haigeng (1939-85), Xu Xingtai (1941-2006) and Wang Xiliang have managed to incorporate traditional Chinese art elements into their creations with a distinctive Chinese flavor, be it a vat, a vase, tableware, or a set of teapots.

By contrast, the ceramics and pottery pieces by contemporary Chinese artists are widely different from those made by their ancestors and older generations.

Their works are not bowls, plates or vases with elegant patterns and smooth surfaces people usually find on dinner tables or in furnishing shops. Compared with works by the old masters, they seem to be a little Western, a little more modern.

They sport strange shapes, formations, patterns and demand attention with their striking visual effects. Some works look like anything but ceramics or pottery works, all reveling in the artists' angst and desire to break from traditions, critics say.

However, "they do reflect in one way or another what's happening in China's ceramics and pottery community nowadays," Lu Pinchang, a renowned experimental ceramist and professor with the Central Academy of Fine Arts, told last weekend's seminar on contemporary ceramics and pottery art held at the National Art Museum of China.

Ambitious curator

"Porcelain-making enjoys a pretty long history in China. And pieces made in ancient times have exerted far-reaching influences on ceramic art in other parts of the world," said museum curator Fan Di'an.

Over the past century, modern Chinese ceramic and pottery artisans have made excellent achievements, by inheriting from, and improving upon, the past to forge their own ceramic and pottery languages, said Fan, also a veteran art critic.

However, "it was not until the early 1980s, when China started its reforms and opening up, that ceramic and pottery artists were fully exposed to the influences of Western art that Chinese ceramic and pottery art entered a golden era with unprecedented diversification in styles, sub-genres and hybrids of artistic forms integrating the traditional elements with contemporary art," he said.

Since its founding in 1963, the National Art Museum of China has accumulated about 70,000 artworks in its collection.

However, only a small number of ceramic and pottery works are included, admitted Fan.

"Fortunately, efforts have been stepped up since early 2004 to enlarge the museum's collection of ceramic and pottery and to carry out academic research and public education on this ever green art genre, with support from the Ministry of Finance," he explained but declined to reveal how much money will be allocated each year for future purchases.

Fan is still unsure how many of the exhibited works will be kept in the museum after the exhibition ends on August 3.

He only predicted that "some day, we can say in confidence, 'If you want to enjoy ancient Chinese ceramic and pottery, please go to the Palace Museum where the best of ancient Chinese porcelain dating back to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties is kept. And if you want to see modern and contemporary Chinese ceramic and pottery art, please come to the National Art Museum of China'."

(China Daily July 10, 2006)