Tony Franks(THE UNITED KINGDOM)

      American ceramics of the second half of the twentieth century developed rapidly, unrestrained by history, tradition and circumstance, but enriched by injections of the many traditions and histories of incoming people from around the entire world. The excitement of new painting and sculpture, in the united States, and the freedom and enthusiasm of its art education system encouraged artists and craftsmen, particularly ceramists, to ignore the rules and believe their own feelings.
      European ceramics of the same period also underwent enormous changes, different from east to west of the continent, and from north to south, and influenced by both their own national and regional and histories， the growing understanding of oriental traditions and enormous impact of the vigorous American expressionist clay work. There was plenty of enthusiasm in European ceramics like in America, but the rules were too Ingrained to allow such rapid and , dare I say, irresponsible development, so the “Clay revolution” was more polite, more controlled.
      Japan, too, had its quiet, but very significant revolution in the fifties and sixties, with a group of influential artists turning away from a conventional focus on the pot as the core activity of ceramics, resulting in very exciting sculptural clay work in Japan during the later decades of the twentieth century.
      In the same period, China was relatively isolated from cultural and artistic developments in other parts of the world and its traditional approach to the visual arts, in general, followed a steady path of continuous development respectful of its thousands of years of ceramic history.
      Today, because of greater openness of attitude between continents, increased opportunities for individuals to travel, and the rapid spread of information through the proliferation of  its thousands of years of ceramic history.
      Today, because of greater openness of attitude between continents, increased opportunities for individuals to travel, and the rapid spread of information, particularly visual information through the proliferation of specialist ceramics books and journals, the exchanges of art and craft exhibitions between Chinese ceramics has been significant, In the work submitted for the National Ceramics Exhibition in Longquan in 2002 many of these external forces were evident, In the contemporary section of the exhibition there were some exciting pieces of great strength and individuality, and there were others where the artist was clearly seeking to express new thoughts while still respecting the indigenous traditions, but there was also a lot of work which appeared to take on the style and the format and the manner of working from another continent without fully understanding its sources and its inspirations.
     In my view this is the current issue that must be faced by contemporary Chinese ceramics. While the wish to emulate the glant strides that were made in American during the nineteen fifties, sixties and seventies is understandable, it is not , in my view, possible for similar “ceramic revolution” to happen in China. The immeasurable richness of Chinese ceramic traditions, like all inherited wealth, is a burden as well as a treasure, and it is impossible for an individual or a nation to behave as thouth is does not exist. It can be accommodated through understanding, it can be considered and temporarily put aside, but it cannot be ignored. The crucial point is that individual artists and craftsmen have to define their own positions in relation to both traditional and contemporary influences, and that is the heart of contemporary education to draw out of each individual the very core of what makes that individuallyty. But the development of an individual ideas does not occur in isolation. It happens through language , material and process and the way to use tools and materials as an important part of the development of a certain idea just as he might use to describe It . There is no “right way” to do something, there is a choice of possible ways, some may be more appropriate for a certain idea at a certain time. Only an individual can make that choice and education involves providing assistance in understanding the making of choices.