Brewing Days and NightsYixing Stoneware Teapots Made by Jufang Wang

Wang Jufang purple sand teapot works exhibition

Brewing Days and Nights

Yixing Stoneware Teapots Made by Jufang Wang

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19.10 - 31.10, 2023

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

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Special exhibition curator: Zhou Lecong

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Purple sand is an art born for tea. It was born in Yixing, Jiangsu province. Yixing was called Yang Xian in ancient times, and pottery has a history of eight thousand years here. According to legend, in the late Ming Dynasty, a craftsman named Shuchun learned the skills of making purple sand teapot from the monks of Jinsha Temple. Since then, the kiln in Yixing has burned for more than 400 years and never extinguished.

The raw materials of the teapot are collected from the mountains around Yixing. High quality purple sand clay also needs to be picked, grinding, aging and other processes to be used by potters. Different from the forming techniques of most ceramic objects in the world, Yixing purple sand teapot is formed through the process called "beating bucket". Through a pair of skillful hands and extraordinary perception, the potter makes a rectangular piece of mud end to end, and then beats it with special tools. Therefore, each handmade teapot is unique.

 Wang Jufang, a purple sand craftsman from Yixing, is also committed to combining the purple sand skills with the current aesthetic fashion while copying the classic models. At the same time, she referred to a variety of ceramic techniques and decorative techniques, and developed a Yixing teapot with a distinctive personal style.

From the spring of the teapot to the contemporary pot art artist Wang Jufang, nearly five hundred years of time has passed, but the story of the teapot continues.

Wang Jufang (pseudonym: Wang Xuefang)

Crafts artist / primary technician / member of ceramic purple sand association

Born in the famous pottery capital —— Dingshu Town, Yixing, a pottery family. He has been influenced by the purple sand culture since childhood, and has made great achievements in the creation and design of zisha pot. During the period of art, bao Wenjun, a researcher level senior engineer, and received the guidance and support of bao Zhiqiang, Ji Yishun and many other masters. During the pot making period, I studied hard and honed my production techniques, and formed my own independent style. His works are simple, sweet, elegant and beautiful, and have been published by many authoritative newspapers and magazines, and made special TV reports, which are well received by peers and loved by pot players at home and abroad.

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Zhou LecongZhou is now a master's degree in art history at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His academic interests focused on the material civilization of East Asia with Chinese ceramics as the core. Over the past few years, Chou has participated in several research projects in the Asian art field in the Netherlands and has curated thematic exhibitions on East Asian ceramics and Japanese Ukiyo-e art in museums in Amsterdam and Leiden.