Bulletin Number Five 1987

song Potter Exhibition An exhibition, The Art of the Song Potter, was mounted at the Art Gallery from 13th October to 6th December, 1987. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Charles K. Kao, hosted the preview and the opening ceremony of the Exhibition on 12th October, 1987. Mr. Yeung Wing-tak, a renowned collector of Chinese antiques and chairman of the management committee of the Yeung Shui Sang Laboratory for Thermoluminescence of Ancient Ceramics, was invited to officiate at the opening ceremony. The occasion also marked the launching of the dating and authentication service of ancient ceramics by the thermoluminescence method offered by the Yeung Shui Sang Laboratory to the general public. Jointly organized by the Art Gallery of the University, the Guangdong Museum of Folk Arts, and the Guangzhou Commission for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments, the Exhibition was the first cooperative effort of the three institutions. It was also the sixth joint project presented by the University Art Gallery with the museums and cultural institutions of Guangdong. More than 200 items were on display, including 102 exhibits of ceramic wares from famous kilns of the Song Dynasty, and a group of over 100 pieces of ceramic specimens unearthed from the kiln site in Guangzhou and from the Art Gallery collection which were originally acquired in Southeast Asia. The Song Dynasty represents a flourishing period in the history of Chinese ceramics. In this exhibition, ceramic products from both the provincial kilns and the official kilns were selected. They were divided into the following seven groups to demonstrate their individual characteristics: Longquan ware and Guan ware, Qingbai ware and related southern white wares, white ware from Ding and related north- tern white wares, Cizhou type ware and related northern wares, Yaozhou ware, Jun ware and related wares, and black wares from Jizhou and Jian kilns. By assembling the wares from major Song kilns, the distinctive craftsmanship of the Song potter, in terms of techniques, glaze application, decorations and stylistic variations, was shown in the exhibition. In addition, specimens unearthed from the Xicun kiln site in Guangzhou constituted another special feature of the Exhibition. They were on view outside China for the first time since the discovery of the kiln site in the fifties. Placed alongside the Xicun wares acquired in the Southeast Asian countries by the Art Gallery, the varieties of the Xicun products and the export activities of Guangzhou ceramic wares of the Song period could be studied. Two fully illustrated catalogues, one on Song ceramics and the other on the Xicun kiln site, were published to accompany the Exhibition. A seminar on 'The Art of the Song Potter', jointly organized by the Art Gallery and the Society of the Friends of the Art Gallery, was held at the Sir Cho Yiu Conference Hall on 20th November. The following four papers were presented: 'Varieties of Song Ceramic Art' by Miss Suk Yee Lai, Museum Assistant of the Art Gallery; 'Calligraphy and Painting as Decoration on Song Ceramics' by Dr. Mayching Kao, Curator of the Art Gallery; 'The Meiping in Song Ceramics' by Mr. Simon Kwan, a noted collector of Chinese antiques; and ‘Song Minor Arts and Their Connections with Ceramics' by Mr. Peter Y.K. Lam, Assistant Curator of the Art Gallery. The Yeung Shui Sang Laboratory for Thermoluminescence of Ancient Ceramics, under the supervision of Dr. L.S. Chuang, has started to offer thermoluminescence dating service to the general public. It was established in March 1986 through an endowment from Mr. Yeung Wing-tak and his brothers. Meiping vase with a painted floral spray; Song to Jin; Height: 41 cm (From the collection of the Guangdong Museum of Folk Arts) 5