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March Issue 2006
Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, Offers Exhibit of Porcelain from China
The cross-cultural connections between Asia and the West are vividly displayed in the extraordinary exhibition, Made in China: Export Porcelain from the Leo and Doris Hodroff Collection at Winterthur, which chronicles the history of Chinese export porcelain from 1550 to 1850. The exhibition will be on view at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, from Mar. 11 through June 25, 2006.
Made in China showcases approximately 150 pieces of export porcelain drinking, dining and decorative wares from the Leo and Doris Hodroff Collection at Winterthur Museum & Country Estate, the former home of noted collector Henry Francis du Pont. The exhibition will explain why porcelain, with its fine white body, delicately painted decoration, and association with the exotic lands of Asia, has long delighted and captivated Europeans and Americans.
The exhibition is divided into thematic and geographic sections focusing on porcelain as a product of skilled Chinese artisans, as a valuable trade commodity, as an artifact of daily life, and as evidence of cultural interactions between Asia and the West. Objects in the exhibition range in size from tiny tea bowls to monumental vases, each a masterpiece of the potter's art.
"The porcelain was designed to suit the needs and tastes of consumers in Europe and America with their Western form and style, while showing the exoticism of China," said Ronald W. Fuchs II, assistant curator of Ceramics for the Leo and Doris Hodroff Collection at Winterthur and curator of the exhibition. "At times, Chinese export porcelain was as fashionable as silver tablewares, and almost as expensive."
Among the objects in the exhibition is a pair of dramatic, four-foot tall vases featuring scenes of Chinese nobles hunting on horseback. Made in China in 1720, these enormous, decorative vases are of a type known as "soldier" vases dating back to 1717 when Augustus the Strong of Saxony traded 600 soldiers from his army for 151 pieces of Chinese porcelain that belonged to Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia.
One of the features of this exhibition is a set of 10 watercolor paintings showing the different stages of porcelain production. The exhibit also includes Western forms such as plates, mugs and candlesticks. Western designs include armorial porcelain decorated with coats of arms for wealthy nobleman; dining and drinking wares showing political events, homage to President George Washington, landscapes and familiar places such as St. Paul's Cathedral in London; as well as whimsical teapots and tureens, religious and mythological themes, and decorative figurines.
For both children and adults, the exhibition includes an interactive computer program, which allows users to design their own Chinese porcelain dinner plate, and a demonstration explaining the differences between porcelain and other types of ceramics.
An accompanying catalogue by Fuchs in collaboration with David S. Howard features 180 full-color illustrations and retails for $50.
Made in China: Export
Porcelain from the Leo and Doris Hodroff Collection at Winterthur was organized by Winterthur
Museum & Country Estate through the generous support of Leo
and Doris Hodroff. Winterthur - known worldwide for its preeminent
collection of 85,000 American antiques; a naturalistic garden;
and a library that is a research center for the study of American
art and material culture - is located in Delaware's Brandywine
Valley, and offers a variety of tours, exhibitions, programs,
and activities throughout the year.
Also on view in the Gibbes' Charleston Renaissance Gallery, through
May 7, 2006, is the exhibition, Leaving the Lowcountry: Charleston
Renaissance Artists on the Road.
For more info check
our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at 843/722-2706
or at (www.gibbesmuesum.org).
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