Gu Jingzhou (1915-1996)

Gu Jingzhou was born in 1915 in the Shangyuan Village, Yixing City. He studied in the Shushan Dongpo School and was approved for his smartness and diligence by the teachers.

In 1933, Gu Jingzhou started to learn Zisha skill with his grandmother. He learned all the traditional skills from his family and other technicians working in his family workshop. He also used his knowledge of Chinese culture in the Zisha making. Soon he became well-known for his wonderful Zisha products. When he was 20, he was invited by the Lang's Gallery in Shanghai and made many duplicate for the ancient Zisha masters' products. His duplicated Zisha pot had very high artistic achievement and many customers even thought they were better than the original copies (See duplicates of A Monk's Hat Pot and Gong Chun Pot made by Gu Jingzhou).

In 1954 Gu Jingzhou helped the government established the Yangdu Pottery Co. He was the instructor of the new Zisha makers training program. Many of his student later became famous Zisha masters in China.

In 1958 he participated the innovation of Zisha technique and designed many new Zisha utilities for the Congress of China.

In 1975 he started the excavation of the ancient Zisha kilns and the archeology work of Zisha technology. He collected lots of data and information of the Zisha history and published many papers.

In 1988 Gu Jingzhou was entitled as the National Traditional Art Master of China. This is the highest honor of Chinese Zisha makers. He was considered as one of the greatest Zisha Masters in the history.

Click here to find out more of Gu Jingzhou's masterpieces in the Zisha Art Exhibition Room

Jiang Rong

Jiang Rong was born in a Zisha maker's family in 1919. She is considered as one of the best female Zisha masters in the history. She is also one of the few National Art Masters among the Zisha makers. Jiang Rong started to learn the Zisha skills when she was only eleven. After ten years' study, she became a skilled Zisha worker. When she was twenty, she followed her uncle Jiang Yanting to Shanghai and started her career. At first she made duplicates for the ancient Zisha masters' products for an antique store. However, she is not satisfied at only making counterfeits. She realized she could only develop her business by designing her own style. Therefore she went back to her hometown Yixing and continued with her own Zisha making.

In 1955, she became a member of the government's Zisha Factory, working as an instructor for the new staff. Jiang Rong created her own style of Zisha: her Zisha pots resembled the plants or animals in the natural world, with a very bright color and vivid outlook. She designed many famous tea pots such as the Squash Pot, Mango Pot, Old pumpkin Pot, the Lotus and Frog Pot, the Peony Pot and the Lotus Root Wine Bottle. Many of her products were collected by different museums and governments all over the world. She also got many awards for her wonderful art achievement.

Click here to find out more of Jiang Rong's masterpieces in the Zisha Art Exhibition Room

Lv Yaochen

In China, Lv Yaochen is called the "leader of Zisha" or "the magician of the art of Zisha". He was born in 1940. In 1958 Lv Yaochen followed the famous Zisha craftsman Wu Yungen to learn Zisha making. Lv Yaochen is a very open-minded Zisha artist. He combined the tradition and modern, oriental and western art style together and created his own Zisha style. His design gives his tea pots a unique and elegant character. In the 1970's, he researched the swirly-patterned porcelain in the Tang Dynasty, and tried to use it in the technique of Zisha potteries. Finally he invented the swirly-pattern Zisha pottery technology and created a new milestone of the Zisha technology. His famous products such as the Yin and Yang Pot, the Silver Sunflower, the Purple Jade and the Gold Sand, the Jade Belt and the very modern style the Love and Desire Pots are widely admired and treasured by the collectors. in 2005 the CCTV made a big TV series "The Purple Jade and the Gold Sand". It is a TV series depicting the development of Chinese Zisha Technology and the whole series was name after one of Lv Yaochen's famous products. Lv Yaochen was also invited to act as the chief art director of the TV series.

Click here to find out more of Lv Yaochen's masterpieces in the Zisha Art Exhibition Room

Zhu Kexin (1904-1986)

Zhu Kexin started his Zisha career in 1919, when he was only 15 years old. Soon he became well known for his skill. In 1927 he became a teacher in the Provincial Pottery School in Yixing. Soon later he created the earliest Zisha coffee sets in China.

Zhu Kexin was good at Zisha sculpture and plastic art, especially resembling the shape of dragons, cloud, pine tree, bamboo and plum tree. In 1932 he made the Cloud and Dragon Ding (Ding is a kind of big container made of bronze, which was used in the Shang and Zhou dynasties about 3000 years ago), which brought him an international award. Another masterpiece the Bamboo Ding which resembles the outlook of a bamboo was bought by the first lady Song Qingling at a high price.

In the 1960's, Zhu Kexin made another representative work "the Long Life Pot", which was reserved by the Chairman Mao Zedong. His Pear Pot was used as a international present to the Prime Minister of Japan.

Zhu Kexin also had lots of students, many of them later became famous Zisha makers in China.

Click here to find out more of Zhu Kexin's masterpieces in the Zisha Art Exhibition Room
 

Tan Quanhai

Tan Quanhai was born in July 1939 in the city of Yixing. Now he is a senior technologist of arts and crafts. in 1968 Tan Quanhai found a job in the Zisha Crafts Factory and followed the famous Zisha maker Ren Ganting to learn Zisha skills. During the three year's study he learn enough skills, especially the carving technique and the composition of the Zisha Pots. In 1976 Tan went to the National College of Arts and Crafts in Beijing and studied in the pottery class, where he met many other famous professors of art. Tan is particularly good at picture and calligraphy carving on the Zisha surface, such as flowers and birds, landscape, people, calligraphy and stamps. His Zisha decoration plate "the Pine Tree and Hawk" and "the Horses" are reserved by the Beijing Museum of Forbidden City in 1979. He also won lots of awards in different competitions.

Click here to find out more of Tan Quanhai's masterpieces in the Zisha Art Exhibition Room


He Daohong

He Daohong was born in 1943 in Yixing. When he was 16 he became a student of Wang Yinchun and got all the secrets of Wang's Zisha making technique. In 1965 he followed another Zisha master Pei Shimin and learned the skill of sculpture and making of fruit and vegetable plastic arts.

In 1970's He went to the National College of Arts and Crafts and studied Plastic Arts and learn the modern knowledge of design. By and by he developed his own artistic style.

In 1981 He Daohong designed a tea set combination. The tea set was a tea pot with four tea cups hiding inside the lower part of the pot which could also be separated. Later he created the Chrysanthemum Flower Tea Set Combination, which combined one tea pot and two cups. All this inspiration comes from his study of both traditional and modern art. He made hundreds of tea pots by using different kinds of Zisha techniques, with some of them as small as a finger and some big enough to hold 40 kilograms of water inside. One of his representative works is the Squirrel and Pine Tree Pot, which can hold 5 liters water inside, vividly resembles a pine tree trunk with a squirrel on the top. Some of his tea pots are reserved by the Forbidden City Museum in Beijing.

In the middle 1980's he began to use abstract design in the Zisha art. In this period he made the famous Ancient Qin Pot, the Jade Belt Pot with Hoop Handle, Big Melon Pot, the Tune of Music Pot and so on. Many of his products are reserved by different museums and brought him great reputation of Zisha art.

Click here to find out more of He Daohong's masterpieces in the Zisha Art Exhibition Room



Bao Zhiqiang

Bao Zhiqiang, Provincial Arts and Crafts Master in Jiangsu. He was born in 1946. In 1961 he went to the Yixing Zisha Arts and Crafts Workshop and followed the Zisha workers Tan Yaokun, Fan Zelin and Ren Ganting. In 1975 he went to the National Arts and Crafts College to study. He is good at using the art of painting and calligraphy, combined with Zisha carving skills. He made many Zisha decoration plates and bottles as well as tea pots.

Click here to find out more of Bao Zhigang's masterpieces in the Zisha Art Exhibition Room



Xu Hantang

Xu Hantang was born in 1932 in a Zisha makers family in the city of Yixing. His family had a good reputation of Zisha, many of the family members were well-known Zisha craftsmen at the time. Xu Hantang was the first student of the great Zisha master Gu Jingzhou, they worked together for many years. In 1975 Xu Hantang went to the National Arts and Crafts College and inspired by the modern artistic knowledge, he created his special style of flower pot, which was call "the Hantang Pot". In 1979 he cooperated with his brother Xu Xiutang and another Zisha craftsman Bao Zhongmei, invented Zisha with inlay of silver wires. In 1980 he studied the technique of the ancient celadon crackle pattern, then developed the method to make ice-crackle pattern on the Zisha surface. In 1981 his Stone Dipper Pot was reserved by the British Victoria Museum. In 1987 he became the first Zisha master who used pearl as the inlay decoration on the Zisha pot and made the famous "Pearl on the Ocean" pot. Till now Xu Hantang is still create new styles and contribute greatly to the development of Zisha technology.

Click here to find out more of Xu Hantang's masterpieces in the Zisha Art Exhibition Room



Wang Yinxian

Wang Yinxian was born in 1943. She is the student of Zisha Master Zhu Kexin. Her representative works are the Plum Trunk Tea Set and the Pumpkin Tea Set. She also made the elegant Curved Pot, which was designed by Professor Zhang Shouzhi of the National Arts and Crafts College. This pot is simple, abstract but elegant. It is considered as the best product which combined the art and utility function together by many international pottery collectors. This also established her reputation as one of the best female Zisha masters in China.

Click here to find out more of Wang Yinxian's masterpieces in the Zisha Art Exhibition Room




 

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