The opening ceremony for The Craft of Modeling Clay: Cultural Exchanges in Ceramic Art among the Ancient East and West exhibition was held on April 2 at the Tsinghua University Art Museum in Beijing.
In recent years, the Tsinghua University Art Museum has held two special exhibitions in collaboration with the Hirayama Ikuo Silk Road Museum in Japan, including the Marvelous Colors, Manifold Forms: Cultural Exchanges in Glass Art among the Ancient East and West exhibition held in 2022, and The Craft of Metalwork: Cultural Exchanges and Mutual Learning in Early Metallurgy across the Eurasian Continent exhibition held in 2023. Through a large number of cultural artifacts, these exhibitions have presented the art of glassmaking created by “fire and sand”, and the art of metalwork created by “fire and metal”. This year, the two museums are collaborating once again to present early-period pottery to late-period porcelain created by “fire and clay”, thus forming “A Trilogy of Fire and Civilization” with the two previous exhibitions.
The exhibition primarily features approximately 270 ceramic artifacts from the Hirayama Ikuo Silk Road Museum, spanning a timeframe of six millennia and various locations across ancient Eurasia and Egypt. The exhibits are organized into seven sections by geographical regions: the ancient Near East, the Iranian Plateau and surrounding areas, the Indus Valley, the Mediterranean, late-period painted pottery from Central Asia, Iran in the Early Islamic Period, and East and Southeast Asia. Despite not being comprehensive, visitors can appreciate the exquisite craftsmanship and intricate designs of these exhibits from different periods and regions, as well as learn the history of ceramics from early-period pottery to late-period porcelain outside of China. Visitor will gain a better understanding of the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western civilizations, and the cultural integration and social progress that might have resulted from their exchanges and mutual learning.
The exhibition is open until July 31.
Source: Tsinghua University Art Museum