Red and Blue and White: Yuan and Early Ming Dynasty Ceramics from the Jinglexuan Collection

EVENT DESCRIPTION

The University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) is privileged to present Red and Blue and White: Yuan and Early Ming Dynasty Ceramics from the Jinglexuan Collection, an exhibition documenting the advanced development of red-and-white and blue-and-white Chinese ceramics. These highly sophisticated artefacts would come to take on unprecedented importance both for the domestic and foreign markets.

While the surface decorations exemplify technological advances in glaze materials and firing techniques, the depicted iconography employs a vocabulary of symbols long celebrated in Chinese culture. Rare examples display stylistic features adapted into export wares that were—like some of the decorative bottles and bowls sent to patrons in the Middle East—more Islamic than Chinese in terms of shapes and motifs.

At UMAG, this selection of ceramics prefaces and extends the museum’s own collection, and the array of further developed forms and colours that characterise later Ming and Qing dynasty porcelains. We are grateful to the Jinglexuan Collection for this opportunity to curate such an exceptionally expansive and educational display.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

UMAG was founded in 1953 as the Fung Ping Shan Museum. It was originally established as the Fung Ping Shan Library in 1932 in honour of its benefactor.