Art is Just Like A Religion, and One Has to Devote His Life to It.——our teacher Zhou Guozhen

‘you write and then you erase, you erase and then you continue to write, back and forth, but some words can never be erased ’ this is the limericks that Xiong Bingming wrote for Mr. Hou Renzhi, which expresses the friendship between teachers and students, thus, perfectly matches my feeling now.
　　I was among the first class of students of Zhou Guozhen, who, at the time, taught sculpture in the Fine Arts Department in Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute. I was not a top student, but definitely one of the oldest. My first close contact with Mr Zhou thirty years ago was my first trip to his small hut in east suburb of Jingdezhen. Although the room was small and life was simple, he was absorbed in ceramic art. In fact, his wife and family lived in downtown, a short distance from the hut, but Mr. Zhou chose to live there and only to spend Sundays with family downtown. All these touched us and we really admired his devotion to art and his regular lifestyle.
　　I still remember his first lecture, during which Mr. Zhou put twenty-two clay sculptures of animal on our desks. These sculptures were newly made by Mr. Zhou in a zoo of Shanghai. We began to learn how to make sculptures step by step, turning over, casting, molding, glazing, firing. He was a man of few words, but when he talked about the soul of art creation, he could always point out the essence in a concise way. He always mentioned a saying by Qi Baishi, that is, ‘if the works too resemble the original, it is considered shallow; when the works resemble nothing as the original ones, it, then, would be considered far-fetched. The beauty of art lies between resemblance and not too much resemblance’. He valued the artistic form of traditional Peking Operas in which ‘walking several steps could represent traveling around the world and half a dozen of actors could exhibit imposing manner of the thousands of soldiers ’. He also cherished ancient Chinese civilization. He created amazing sculptures one after another, which even could be compared with sculptures from Han and Tang Dynasties. Moreover, his words and deeds had great influence on the personality of JCI graduates. We all learned the values of being down to the earth and attached great importance to practice. The endeavors contributed to the acclaimed ‘phenomenon of JCI ’. A large number of his students play active roles in the national and international stage of sculpture.
　　Mr. Zhou became a ‘ceramic artist’ as early as late 1950s, when the very title of an artist was rare and considered genuine. Mr. Zhou was the first university graduate ever to come to work in Jingdezhen. As an excellent graduate from China Central Academy of Fine Arts, he settled in ceramic world of Jingdezhen, and under the perfect artistic atmosphere, he made great achievements here in Jingdezhen. Jingdezhen promoted the development of Mr. Zhou, and in return, Jingdezhen became even more famous because of him.
　　Before Mr. Zhou came to teach in JCI, he worked at Ceramic Institute of former Ministry of Light Industry, where he was wrongly labeled as a reactionary academic authority. After he was cleared of any wrongdoings and came to JCI, his pent-up passion for creation was released, just like a spring. He worked as hard as an industrious ant. As the pent-up passion served the art well, he was always busy creating something. Dressed in his blue working clothes, he sat on the bench and turned the wheel, adding or chopping the clay on the animal sculpture.  He always wore his narrow-rim glasses. When he talked to us, he looked up his eyes from the rim, and his eyes turned into a pair of white eyes, which always brought a lot of laughter to us.
　　And those years saw the coming of quite a number of animal sculptures, like ‘Independence ’, ‘Rage ’, ‘Buffalo ’, ‘Cat ’, and ‘the Sheep, Mother and Children ’, which featured exaggerated deformation, and bright glaze porcelain color. Mr. Zhou values art above everything else. And his devotion earned him a splendid personal art resume.
　　After personal exhibition in Shanghai in 1963, he held his second solo exhibition in Shanghai Art Gallery in 1980; solo exhibition in Jingdezhen in 1981; solo exhibition in Jiangxi Industrial Museum in 1982; published an album "Zhou Guozhen Ceramic Art’ in 1983; Chairman of Kaolin Ceramic Art Society in 1984; works in exhibition at the Sixth National Fine Arts Exhibition in 1984;  director of National Artists Association and chairman of Jiangxi Sculpture Association in 1985; ‘Zhou Guozhen Ceramic Art Exhibition at National Art Museum of China by China National Arts Association in 1986;(well received in the art circle--professor Qian Shaowu);vice chairman of Jiangxi Arts Association; professor in 1987; deputy director of the National People's Congress of Jingdezhen; vice chairman of Federation of Literature and Art of Jingdezhen; chairman of Art Association of Jingdezhen; judge of Commission of China Arts and Crafts Master of China, a visit to Japan; listed in ‘Famous People in Far-east ‘ by Cambridge in 1989; dean of School of Fine Arts, JCI in 1990; a visit to Singapore in 1991; recipient of  State Council Special Allowance in 1991...a dazzling list to be continued.
　　In 1981, already graduated from JCI, I came across Mr. Zhou in Beijing when I attended the National Ceramic Art Exhibition on behalf of Jiangsu Province. I helped him carry his works to Beijing Sculpture Factory. And at the studio of Shi Yi, Mr. Zhou took his works titled ‘Couple’ outof the box, a pair of flamingos’ sculptures which featured simple design, graceful posture and crackle glaze of shadow blue. The sculptures amazed Shi Yi and Xia Xiaomin and other artists. They asked ‘how could you possibly make them?’, and “Don’t go too far” replied Mr. Zhou. The simple words revealed the truth of art that art is the combination of implicitness and explicitness and leaving something implicit so as to provide a space for viewer to imagine, a creed of art creation that I never forget.
　　When it comes to talking about the art life of Zhou Guozhen, two people can not be missed. One is Mr. Zhou Qingding, and the other, Mr. Zheng Ke. Zhou Guozhen and Zhou Qingding were both from Anren County, Hunan Province. In 1946 when Mr Zhou Qingding returned to his hometown, Zhou Guozhen walked five li to hear, in the playground of a school, a lecture of Mr. Zhou Qingding. From then on, the younger Zhou made his mind to study art and became an apprentice of Zhou Qingding. In 1954, when Zhou Guozhen came to Jingdezhen after graduating from Central Academy of Fine Arts, Mr. Zhou Qingding paid a special visit to his apprentice and said that ‘you shall become the first real animal sculptor in China ’. The two walked hand in hand; studied hand in hand; and looked like father and son. Between 1962 and 1963, in Shanghai Western Suburb Zoo, the two carried clay box and made animal sculptures right out of the animals inside the cages, from which Mr. Zhou laid a solid foundation for his techniques of clay sculpture sketching and animal sculptures.
　　The reason why Mr. Zhou became a student of Mr. Zheng Ke goes like this. In 1963, when he was attending an exhibition and heard that Mr. Zheng Ke was going to give a lecture at Central Academy of Fine Arts, he immediately refunded his return train ticket so as to attend the lecture. Unfortunately, the lecture was postponed for some reason. When Mr. Zheng learned that a student lingered in Beijing just to wait for his lecture, he invited Mr. Zhou home and the two talked all night. Mr. Zheng passed on the principles of art creation, and thus, Mr. Zhou changed his way of sculpturing and formed his very own artistic style.
　　Both Mr. Zhou Qingding and Zheng Ke became vanguards of Chinese modern sculpturing after returning from France during the late years of Republic of China. They were both protégés of Jean Buche, and Jean Buche was a protégé of Rodin, thus, Mr. Zhou said to us, ‘you guys can literally be called the protégés of Rodin’. The encouragement made us all crazy that our artistic lineage was unexpectedly from Rodin. These words greatly boosted our confidence and self-esteem, and inspired us to work even harder. All the efforts promoted the coming of ‘Phenomenon of JCI ’.
　　2008 witnessed the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, and on that occasion, a grand ceramic exhibition was to be held in National Art Museum of China and I was invited to participate in the event. In order to prepare my works for the exhibition, I came to the studio of Mr. Zhou, where I spent more than a month with him. On talking about the creation, Mr. Zhou said that when he traveled to the Tomb of Huo Qubing at Xingping, Shanxi Province, he was overwhelmed and inspired by the artistic style of Han Dynasty. Mr. Zhou, abandoned the colorful style of high temperature porcelain, and used the clay directly to create, which helped to explore the primitive and rough beauty of clay. The ‘owl’ in ‘Vigilance’ was one of those works. The staring eyes of the ‘owl’ could simply take your breath away. Mr. Zhou told me that, the iron rust of the owl was, in fact, the granule by dicing the iron wire. In the ‘boar’ in ‘The Wild Boar’ Mr. Zhou got the grooves on the body of the animal by wrapping straw in the clay and removing the straw after firing. The continuous cracks in ‘Antelope’ are obtained by adding hair into the white clay.
　　All these came just because the natural laws of simplicity were followed. All these works represented the natural simplicity and free mood of the sculptor. The critics on the works of Mr. Zhou can be found in newspapers or picture albums, in which one can find praise or criticism by famous people, like Cai Ruohong or Wang Chaowen. But I would like to add one thing that the new style of Mr. Zhou, which gets rid of flashy modification, shows the naked and primitive form of life.
　　Last year, Mr. Qian Shaowu and his wife, when visiting Zhou Guozhen Ceramic Museum in Jingdezhen, said, ‘there are no short of artistic masters in name in the world, but Mr. Zhou is one of the real masters ’. The very words were the correct evaluation of Mr. Zhou.
　　Mr. Zhou is Kind, tranquil, calm, and full of wisdom. He once joked about himself, ‘I was glued by the porcelain clay ’, and the very word ‘glued’ tells us his obsession with ceramic sculpture. If we count from 1954, we will welcome the coming of 60 years anniversary. Art is just like a religion, and one has to devote his life to it.
　　We have been keeping close touch with each other and we often talk to each other over the phone. He told me recently that he would hold another solo exhibition in National Art Museum of China in the coming November. The news excited me and touched me.  The value of art lies in perseverance, and Mr. Zhou sets a good example for us.
　　His coming exhibition at the age of 80 allows us to better understand the saying that a master must be someone who lives longer. I wish the exhibition a success; I wish him live a healthy and longer life; I wish that he will create more outstanding works.

 Student, Xia Hexing
                                  Summer 2011