Remembering Professor Shi Yuren

Zhang Wenbing Born in 1966 in Yushan County, Jiangxi Province, Zhang Wenbing graduated with a Masters degree in 1992 from Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute. Currently, he is a professor at Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute and a member of the China Arts and Crafts Association.

Remembering Professor Shi Yuren
by Zhang Wenbing
Twelve years ago now, 1996 was the year my teacher left us forever. When I look at his works and look over my notebooks from my student days, I recall him so vividly in my memory. He seems to appear right in front of my eyes. Unlike the colors in a picture, my memory does not fade; in actuality, it grows in size and detail.
In 1985, I passed the entrance exams to gain admittance to Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute where I studied design. At that time, I was full of a zealous passion for porcelain and an enthusiasm to learn. That time felt like a song. It was the time of China’s ceramic art renaissance, a time when teachers and students were deeply devoted to art: teachers motivated by emotion-charged diligence and students full of unfocused passion. The two dimensions came together then, and the creative tension between them was the catalyst that enabled me to meet Shi Yuren, a teacher who deeply influenced my choices in art and my values in life.
Those days, Shi Yuren was an artist full of amazing energy and vitality. After class I used to see him, an elder man with a commanding voice, still talking to a large group of students and showing them his work. Their shared laughter rang out. In the classroom, he would talk in a more intense way about many things, not just ceramic arts. His topics ranged from natural phenomena to the supernatural, from human significations to celestial ones. He brought this kind of wide-ranging knowledge to the classroom, and we students absorbed his ideas almost subconsciously.
The difference between Shi Yuren and other teachers had to do with his way of approaching art, which he did completely, fully, body and soul. When I attended class, I could often see him busy in his studio where he so thoroughly brought together the tradition of Chinese ceramic arts and a modern sensibility. Above all, Shi Yuren loved nature, his source of artistic inspiration and dedication. A single piece of grass, just one tree – all were well-springs for his art. His heart and soul could deeply understand the changing rhythms of nature; these changes together with his state of mind became his art. We can see how every brushstroke and every color revealed his love of nature, his passion for life. At that time, unfortunately, I was really too young to understand the depths of his thinking and feeling, although my approach to art resonated with his.
Whenever I see my teacher’s work, I am inspired to work on my art and to express my feelings that come from deep inside, feelings that directed me to be Shi Yuren’s graduate student. In 1989, I was accepted into Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute’s graduate design program where Shi Yuren became my advisor. One heart, one mind, one focus under his guidance – as we walked together along the same path of traditional Chinese art and modern art.
Zhang Xuewen, also one of Shi Yuren’s students, said it best: “Shi Yuren is China’s finest contemporary ceramic art master. His greatest contribution is the ‘Intellectual Painting School’ approach which blends the ceramic art decorating style with the Chinese painting foundation practiced earlier in Jingdezhen that served to recover the origins of porcelain fine arts. By combining the folk and the academic, he brought out the essence of both.”
During the three years from 1989-1992, I enjoyed the most frequent contact with Shi Yuren. His speech, actions, and approach to ceramic art constantly guided me in my own art and research. As Shi Yuren said, “Art wants to keep hold of the spirit of tradition which is its very language and asks us to be bold and creative, to aim for breakthroughs, and to form our personal style.” Obviously, this same philosophy motivated his own practice and renewed the porcelain arts tradition with infinite emotion and intellectualism.
Shi Yuren used very humble folk language to describe the more expressive modern decorative style, which demands more academic terminology. His down-to-earth simplicity, his integrity, his passion for life, and his love of nature all gave encouragement and support to our studies. The force of his personality and wisdom made him the most creative art educator. His words as well as his deeds guided us along the creative path and opened up blue skies for our future developments. Like a spring rain, his teaching gently, quietly nourishes us. As his student, I find it really difficult in these few paragraphs to express how much I miss him. I am unable to do so in language at all. His entire short life was a bright beacon lighting our way along the road of ceramic art creativity. A free spirit toward artistic endeavor, the earth-bound roots of Chinese art, and the more intellectual, academic approach – all of these he brought to Jingdezhen. Although far away now, he left us with his spirit which lives forever, from now into the future of porcelain creative arts.

Translated by Yenfen Huang and Carla Coch