At 3:00 p.m. of April 19, 2015, four ceramic artists attending the Interaction and Integration of Civilization- Eastern and Western Contemporary Ceramic Art Exhibition, donated their ceramic works for the exhibition to the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC). The ceramists from four countries were Zhu Legeng, Wayne Higby, Jacques Kaufmann, and Shimizu Rokubei (8th generation).

Regarding this exhibition, the curator of the NAMOC Wu Weishan said that ceramic works of the east and west embody the relations among the heaven, earth and man. They contain the relationship between human and nature in the eastern philosophy, as well as intimacy of western civilization with the primitive, ancient culture. In this exhibition, the artists from four countries focused on a same subject, which was the development of human society and expression of human emotions. The NAMOC advocated exchanges of the oriental and western cultures to display common human feelings, enhance world peace and link up human emotions through art. To this end, Wu Weishan reached consensus with the artists to collect their ceramic works in the NAMOC. The donated ceramic works were Chinese Buffalo and Wind from Zhu Legeng, Cloud Structure: Daybreak from Wayne Higby, Landscape: Everything is Fine Until Now from Jacques Kaufmann, and Bright White Ceramic Pattern 25-C and Black Ceramic Pattern 23-A from Shimizu Rokubei (8th generation).

The donation ceremony was held at Hall 7 of the NAMOC. It was attended by Xie Xiaofan, deputy curator of the NAMOC; Professor Zhu Legeng, dean of the Art Creation Department under China Art Research Institute; Huang Chunmao and Nick Geankoplis, representatives of American ceramic artist Wayne Higby; Li Li, curator of this exhibition, as well as staff workers of the Collection Department and PR Department of the NAMOC. the activity was hosted by Li Li.

The ceramic art exhibition, sponsored by China Art Research Institute, displayed the ceramic cultures of China, the U.S., Europe and Japan with latest works of Zhu Legeng, Wayne Higby, Jacques Kaufmann and Shimizu Rokubei (8th generation). Permeated with profound features of the time, the works demonstrated artistic characteristics of ceramic creation in integrating different cultures of the west and the east. The exhibition is of strong international line-up ever held in China. With this exhibition, Chinese audiences will learn about latest trends of contemporary ceramic development. It also fully embodies the principle of the International Ceramics Association of UNESCO to promote world peace and dialogue and mutual learning of all civilizations. The exhibition, when unveiled, caused a considerable stir in Beijing and attracted numerous audiences at home and abroad.

At the donation ceremony, Xie Xiaofan showed appreciation of the artists for their donation. He said that the ceremony, though simple, had very substantial contents. The ceramic exhibition was the best he saw in recent years. The NAMOC was in the hope of holding more international exchanges of this sort, and highlight the sacred, lofty and sublime beauty of the highest palace of art in China in content and nature.

The foreign artists attending the exhibition were rejoiced to display their works in the NAMOC and willing to have their representative works left there. Wayne Higby expressed his thanks in a letter and entrusted his student to attend the donation ceremony on his behalf. He wrote poetically that in the morning sunshine in New York, he saw as if the golden roof of the NAMOC, a treasure house of art masterpieces. He appreciated the exhibition organizer and the NAMOC for their cultural tolerance, and said he would always remember the generosity of the NAMOC and Chinese people. Jacques Kaufmann called to say that he was attached emotionally to China in his artistic career. In recent years, he has made artistic creations in different places in China. He felt honored to have his works collected in the NAMOC. This would further deepen his connection with China. Shimizu Rokubei (8th generation) said that this international ceramic art exhibitions was one of the highest graded and best in artistic standard he had ever attended. He felt honored to have his works collected in the NAMOC.

Zhu Legeng, representing China in the exhibition, said at the donation ceremony on behalf of the participating artists that “It is a great pleasure to attend the exhibition. There are only four ceramists attending the exhibition, each representing a country or region. I am honored to be here on behalf of China, a country of great history and civilization. China was the first in the world to invent ceramics. The porcelain-making technologies and the philosophy contained in the porcelain art had an impact on the entire world. Today, as we march toward the modern society, we start to learn from Europe, USA and even Japan. We have realized in this exhibition that the evolution of world civilization is a process of mutual learning. Here, on behalf of myself and other artists attending the exhibition, I’d like to extend sincere thanks to the NAMOC. We are willing to donate most representative works to the museum for permanent preservation.”

Wu Weishan said that the NAMOC was privileged to accept donation of the four artists. Now, the NAMOC is accelerating collection of international artistic works. The NAMOC is not only a Chinese art museum, but also an art treasure house of the world. We’re committed to placing the NAMOC under the world context to enable more international artists to understand Chinese culture and its tolerance. Though feeling cold, ceramics are made in firing to radiate with warm emotions. These works constitute good dialogues between water and fire, and between modern high technology and traditional culture.

At the donation ceremony, Xie Xiaofan issued certificates of donation to Zhu Legeng and Nick Geankoplis, who represented Wayne Higby.

Zhu Legeng is among the most important ceramic artists promoting environmental ceramics and life ceramics in the country. He is engaged in ceramic creation under the influence of his father Zhu Mingsheng. Different from his father, Zhu Legeng has walked out his own way in ceramic art, in the language of clay and fire. In 1997, he held his first ceramic exhibition in the NAMOC. Later, he found opportunities to make exchanges in ROK, Japan, US, Canada, France and Germany. The trips broadened his horizons and motivated his artistic creativity. From then, he melted his ceramic works into urban landscapes, becoming a part architectures and public art in squares. Recently, he paid a tribute to the farming civilization with his series of large-scale installation ceramic sculpture, Chinese Buffalos. The works show that he is not only a contemporary ceramic artist, but also a thinker of humanistic concern.

Wayne Higby is a professor of Alfred University in the United States. He also serves curator and director of the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum. He was former vice president of the International Ceramics Association. He is a famous ceramic artist, excellent ceramic educator and organizer promoting contemporary ceramics across the world. In 1991, he visited China for the first time and fully agreed to the idea of Chinese paintings that took the land as a life entity and captured the visual expression brought about by energy (artistic conception). Since 1995, he has constantly tried to make works of oriental complex with high temperature porcelain, especially celadon. His donated work, The Cloud Structure: Daybreak, is a part of his major large-scale scenery ceramic installation mural Land Cloud. It expresses the American landscape in his heart with oriental philosophy. It gives expression to the Chinese theory that man is an integral part of nature.

Jacques Kaufman is an authentic artist from Europe. He serves as the director and professor of the Ceramics Department of Vevey Application Art College, Switzerland. He is concurrently president of the International Ceramics Association of the UN. Influenced by the oriental philosophy, he emphasizes perception and intuition of sudden enlightenment in his works. He believes that intuition is like a proposition, and an internal reflection. Since it reflects his understanding of creation materials and unveils his thinking of all possibilities of creation, he stresses spontaneity and occurrence in his works. Landscape: Everything Is Fine Until Now exactly shows his creation idea. Here, techniques, materials and chance factors combine to produce results, which are “refusal of useful tool, returning to original nature, and letting things take their own course” in the Taoist philosophy, and the concept of “equality of things and nature” as discussed by Zhuangzi.

Shimizu Rokubei (8th generation), professor of the plastic art department of Kyoto University, is a major ceramic artist developing a school of his own in Japan. Shimizu Rokubei is a celebrated family of ceramics in Japan, with the family title handed down from generation to generation. Shimizu Rokubei (8th generation), similar to his ancestors, melts considerable factors of the oriental and western cultures in his works. He also integrates many traditional and modern cultural factors in the works to eventually foster his own style of ceramics. In artistic creation, he applies what he learnt in architecture class to drawing blueprints as if drawing layout, digs out clay plate following the blueprint, and laminates them into modeling. He believes the natural curve shaped by gravity in high-temperature burning is a contributor to the shaping of works. It complies with the contemporary trend to pursue the nature and essence of clay. The two donated works fully embody this feature. The works keep abstract geometric shape. The glaze of the porcelain has been burnt intentionally with metallic look to reflect light, because he believes glazed surface sets off surrounding scenes, to make the works take ambient spatial awareness and melt with the environment.