The Chinese celadons of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries with their jade-like, blue-green glazes are a milestone in ceramic history. Due to their extreme rarity, the Ru ceramics in particular have caused a sensation in recent years and achieve sales in the millions at auctions. Hardly less iconic are the Longquan celadons, which originated in the southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279) in Zhejiang Province. To this day, these pieces, whose thick glazes allow surprising effects, have lost none of their fascination and stimulation potential. Even the layman will be amazed at the nuances of color such as “the blue of the sky after the rain” or “plum green” and the picturesque craquelé.

In the founding years of the People's Republic of China there was a revival of the old handicraft technique, largely unnoticed by the West.

The famous imperial ovens were archaeologically developed.

From 1956, nine dragon ovens based on historical models and a modern celadon factory were built in Longquan.

A surge in innovation, but also a moment of crisis, was the switch from these wood-devouring giants to smaller, easily adjustable gas stoves in the 1980s, combined with the privatization of production as part of economic reforms.

Today the traditional celadon distillation technique is recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of mankind;

in addition, the Masters of Longquan are highly decorated with national and regional honorary degrees.

The poles of the artistic cosmos

A central figure in this closely networked community, including family members, is the “grand master of porcelain art” and “living state treasure” Mao Zhengcong (born 1940), who has been actively shaping developments in Longquan for decades. In the meantime, several generations of ceramists have moved up and are increasingly seeking international recognition for their art. After initial presentations in the Forum Factory Berlin (2015) and in the Ceramic Museum Westerwald (2017), the curator Anette Mertens and the ethnologist Mareile Flitsch developed a larger exhibition on contemporary celadons from Longquan. The second stop after the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich is now the Munich Museum Five Continents.

You can see more than fifty distinctive vessel personalities, which especially invite the connoisseur to contemplate.

The selection and the arrangement of the pieces follow the assessment scheme with which the masters assess their works themselves and which the exhibition aims to convey.

The visitor who has been instructed in this way gradually recognizes the poles of this artistic cosmos: glaze and shards, rotated and freely designed forms, painterly effects and plastic applications, abstract ornaments and figurative reliefs, craquelure in large lines or in the finest, flaky nets as well as a palette, which, in addition to blue and green, includes the often forgotten rice yellow.

A dialogue with the past

Those who love the classic can linger with the can “Moonlight in Clear Water” in its almost Bauhaus-like simplicity (Xu Jianxin) or with the bottle vase with phoenix handles, which almost literally repeats a song-time model (Jiang Xiaohong). The bowl “Little monkeys look at the full moon” (Jiang Feiyi) proves narrative wit and youthful freshness. Like a strangely petrified melon, but full of gravitas, the lidded vase “Powerful fish scale craquelure” dominates the room (Mao Weijie).

In this sensual abundance, the corona-related compromises are worthy of criticism: the light could have been set up even better with the cooperation of the masters, as in Zurich. The material sample provided in the concept that you can touch and thus the haptic dimension of the celadon as a whole fell victim to infection protection. At least, however, Master Li Zhen explains in a video the meaning of the broken fragments found in the old ovens, which are "readable" for experts and allow a dialogue with the past, as Edmund de Waal described in "The White Road". The value of the local resources becomes clear, which in addition to the archaeological sites include, above all, the raw materials, commonly known as earth, and the landscape as an aesthetic resonance space.

The Munich exhibition is not a harmless performance show, but eminently political. In the preface to the catalog, Mao Zhengcong referred to the “New Silk Road”. The presentation of historical celadons shown two years ago in the Beijing Palace Museum was also based on the theme of globalization. The tension between world-worthy championship and globally networked production relationships refers to a general problem: Which traditional skills do we want to preserve as cultural assets - and why? Mao Zhengcong's granddaughter, who has returned to the traditional potter's wheel after a promising bachelor's degree in 3-D animation, confidently sums up: “It is my inner concern to learn from my ancestors in order to bring the Longquan celadon to perfection again. "

Celadon in focus. Jade-like porcelains and their masters in Longquan.

In the Museum of Five Continents, Munich; by the end of March 2022. From September 17 to 19, there will be a themed weekend with the curator Anette Mertens. The catalog costs 48 euros.