Clay and Ink: Yixing Masters with 20th-Century Painters

A wisp of smoke rises from the kiln and blends with the scent of ink: here Yixing’s purple clay is not just matter, but calligraphy taking shape. The exhibition recounts the encounter between Master potters and great twentieth-century painter-calligraphers, where the brushstroke converses with the hand that molds. The teapot, a humble everyday companion, becomes a custodian of poetry, painting, and seals; a microcosm condensing technique, symbols, and memory. Among the works on view, the voices of figures such as Zhang Daqian, Fu Baoshi, Pan Tianshou, Wu Guanzhong, Lin Fengmian, Li Kuchan, Huang Yongyu, and others stand out - different temperaments united by an idea of form as energy in motion. Alongside the paintings and calligraphy, a constellation of teapots seals historic collaborations with Yixing Masters: surfaces that welcome marks, low reliefs, and small iconic epiphanies, transforming the utilitarian object into a tactile sculpture. The display builds a bridge between “high” art and craft, between gesture and function. What emerges is an aesthetic geography in which each piece is a story: the earth fires, the mark breathes, and Chinese culture reveals itself as a living ecosystem where art does not illustrate the everyday - it inhabits it.