The Southern School and North School of Chinese Ceramics

In China, porcelain can be divided into Southern School and Northern School: Southern School - celadon represented by Jingdezhen and North School - white porcelain represented by Penal Kiln and Ding Kiln. As the northern porcelain capital, Hebei Tangshan is one of the representatives of the Northern School of porcelain, especially known for its ceramic paintings.

As a kind of ceramic art, ceramic painting has a long history. It originally originated from Jingdezhen. The early Tangshan ceramics painted rough work, porcelain taste is very strong, the process characteristics are obvious. In modern times, with the development of society and the change of people’s aesthetic tastes, Tangshan Ceramics has made great progress. In particular, the emergence of magnolia porcelain and white jade porcelain, and the rise of bone china in recent years have all brought China's white porcelain culture to the extreme. The modern Tangshan ceramics painting industry has also developed rapidly. It has a great difference from the blue-and-white paintings of Jingdezhen. The hand-painted and new-colored paintings with Tangshan characteristics constitute the two landscapes of Tangshan porcelain.

The difference between the paintings of the two places is obvious. The ceramic culture of Jingdezhen dates back to ancient times, and various traditional techniques are complete and mature. Although there are innovations in modern times, they can always find their own ancestors. Tangshan's ceramic paintings are different. Due to the relatively low influence of the traditional, and even more nearly Jinjing, the continuous intervention of the painters and artists in Tianjin and Beijing, the ceramic painting has made great progress. Because the new colors and underglaze colors are more suitable for the performance of Chinese paintings, the development is relatively rapid. This is why Tangshan Art Ceramics is full of taste. Some people say that ceramic paintings have to have porcelain, which is not without reason. The modern Tangshan hand-painted ceramics are mostly copies of Chinese paintings. The paintings are too strong and the porcelain taste is too little for innovation.

Traditional porcelain paintings are simple and decorative, but they are too old, lacking in spirit and no sense of the times. Although the copy of pure Chinese painting has charm, it always feels a certain difference from paper painting. How to create works with both contemporary and esthetic tastes and ceramic features is a difficult problem for modern ceramic artists. The good news is that many artists in recent years have already realized this and started to try and develop some innovative works.

Art needs innovation. This is where art lives. The same is true for ceramic painting. Just as the eight friends of Zhushan brought Chinese painting elements into ceramic paintings during the period of **, modern art concepts will surely enter the modern ceramic decorative arts.

From a certain point of view, art ceramics are also commodities. Its rise and fall cannot be circumscribed by the market. The rise and fall of porcelain from the Tangshan spray pottery in the 1960s and 1970s and the 80s and 90s ceramic frescoes are evident. Since the beginning of this century, due to the development of society, the improvement of people’s living standards and the change in aesthetic pursuits, middle-to-high-end art ceramics have gradually entered people’s lives. In recent years, the art of daily-use ceramics has also illustrated this point.

Modern people's lives need modern decorative arts to beautify, and modern ceramic arts need more fertile soil for one party. With the arrival of prosperity, this is the hope of ceramic art and ceramic workers. It is hoped that ceramic workers will create works with the spirit of the times and contribute to the beautification of people's lives.