DOI Heft:
Nr. 333 (February 1925)
DOI Artikel:Ackerman, Phyllis: The east meets the west
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19984#0116
mceRnACionAL
of his secrets. Bufano was al-
ready interested in glazes. He
had experimented with glazed
terra cotta as a sculptural me-
dium, led by the example of his
own countrymen, the Delia
Robbias. And he had won some
charming effects. But he needed
a surer control of texture and
color and a greater range of
material.
So he went to Kingtehchen,
the porcelain city that has for
eighteen hundred years pro-
duced fine ceramic wares and
for a thousand been the greatest
center of pottery making the
world has ever known. He
lived with them their own life
to win their confidence. Some
secrets he could never pene-
trate. The wily Chinaman fos-
ters superstitions about his
methods in order to lead the
curious away from the facts and
these false clues Bufano had to
avoid at every turn. Take the
red, for instance. Popular tra-
dition has it that it is made of
gold and the one family of King-
tehchen that holds the true
knowledge as its family heritage
fosters this idea. For a rival will
soon ruin himself experimenting
with gold and get nowhere.
This, and many other tricks,
Bufano had to learn by long and
expensive experience.
But in the end he did learn
not all but most of the difficult
and important processes of the
Chinese glazes, the purest and
MOTHER AND CHILDREN PORCELAIN BY BENIAMINO BUFANO .
most lustrous inthe ceramic arts
Bufano was too close to his own native Italian with the exception of certain early Persian glazes
tradition not to have been basically a decorator, which stand alone. Moreover he worked right
He never became too absorbed in representation there witli the Kingtehchen porcelainous clay,
to search for pattern and design. But the Chinese firing in Kingtehchen kilns. Thus he fused his
examples ever in his eye enhanced this tendency new technique with his renewed point of view in
and focused it on the central and very oriental the setting that had given it birth, making his
quality of rhythm. The swing of lines into each oriental acquisitions a closely welded part of his
other with a broken beat, the flow of spaces con- own artistic thinking. More than two years he
tinuously but with an emphasized succession came stayed and worked in Kingtehchen so that when
to be by degrees inherent in his conception of form, he came to leave he found himself possessed of an
And finally China gave him of her long tech- embarrassing collection both of Chinese models
nical experience. Or rather Bufano wrested it he had zealously acquired and of his own work,
from China for the Chinese craftsman is jealous It is one of his Chinese pieces that the Metro-
three seventy-six
FEBRUARY I 9 2 5
of his secrets. Bufano was al-
ready interested in glazes. He
had experimented with glazed
terra cotta as a sculptural me-
dium, led by the example of his
own countrymen, the Delia
Robbias. And he had won some
charming effects. But he needed
a surer control of texture and
color and a greater range of
material.
So he went to Kingtehchen,
the porcelain city that has for
eighteen hundred years pro-
duced fine ceramic wares and
for a thousand been the greatest
center of pottery making the
world has ever known. He
lived with them their own life
to win their confidence. Some
secrets he could never pene-
trate. The wily Chinaman fos-
ters superstitions about his
methods in order to lead the
curious away from the facts and
these false clues Bufano had to
avoid at every turn. Take the
red, for instance. Popular tra-
dition has it that it is made of
gold and the one family of King-
tehchen that holds the true
knowledge as its family heritage
fosters this idea. For a rival will
soon ruin himself experimenting
with gold and get nowhere.
This, and many other tricks,
Bufano had to learn by long and
expensive experience.
But in the end he did learn
not all but most of the difficult
and important processes of the
Chinese glazes, the purest and
MOTHER AND CHILDREN PORCELAIN BY BENIAMINO BUFANO .
most lustrous inthe ceramic arts
Bufano was too close to his own native Italian with the exception of certain early Persian glazes
tradition not to have been basically a decorator, which stand alone. Moreover he worked right
He never became too absorbed in representation there witli the Kingtehchen porcelainous clay,
to search for pattern and design. But the Chinese firing in Kingtehchen kilns. Thus he fused his
examples ever in his eye enhanced this tendency new technique with his renewed point of view in
and focused it on the central and very oriental the setting that had given it birth, making his
quality of rhythm. The swing of lines into each oriental acquisitions a closely welded part of his
other with a broken beat, the flow of spaces con- own artistic thinking. More than two years he
tinuously but with an emphasized succession came stayed and worked in Kingtehchen so that when
to be by degrees inherent in his conception of form, he came to leave he found himself possessed of an
And finally China gave him of her long tech- embarrassing collection both of Chinese models
nical experience. Or rather Bufano wrested it he had zealously acquired and of his own work,
from China for the Chinese craftsman is jealous It is one of his Chinese pieces that the Metro-
three seventy-six
FEBRUARY I 9 2 5