Pei Xueli: Tradition and Innovation

by Glen R. Brown

沛雪立：传统与创新

格伦·布朗

Legacy is not of great importance to most American work in clay. In this country the

ceramics tradition tends to be conceived somewhat vaguely as a worldwide development in

human creativity rather than a specific cultural inheritance from our national past.

Historical ceramics may provide inspiration or provoke inhibition, but there is no

imperative to acknowledge them in contemporary practice. Bonds with the past appear to be

products of selection rather than natural consequences of creating objects in clay. Bernard

Leach was probably correct in his famous pronouncement that American ceramics lacked a

national "taproot," but this has proved to be no great handicap ? except, perhaps, in the

matter of perspective on the work of contemporary ceramists from those countries where such

taproots run exceptionally deep. Of these, the most prominent is unquestionably China, the

ancient seedbed of a surprising number of ceramic traditions that have survived in

continuous living form into the present.

文化遗产对美国的绝大多数陶艺作品来讲并没有特别重大的意义。从某种程度上讲，这个国家里的陶瓷传统往往被

含糊其词地视为人类创造活动中的一种全球性的发展产物，而不是从我们本国历史上继承的一种特定的文化遗产。

历史上的陶艺作品可以给人以灵感，抑或形成一种阻力，但并不存在当代艺术创作活动中承认它们的紧迫性。与历

史捆绑在一起似乎是一种选择的产物，而不是用粘土创作作品的自然结果。伯纳德·利奇那个著名的论断似乎是正

确的，那就是美国的陶艺缺少一种具有国家性质的“本源”，然而，这一点在今天已经被证明并不是特别重大的不

利条件，或许有一点除外，即：深入地了解那些来自有着深厚的“本源”发展历程的国度的当代陶瓷艺术家们的作

品。在这些国家中，最令人注目的，毫无疑问，就是中国，这个古老的有着多重陶瓷传统的发源地，在不断推陈出

新且旺盛生命力的艺术形式中，这些传统一直延续到今天。

Pei Xueli, a faculty member at the Suzhou Art and Design Technology Institute, counts

himself as one of many contemporary Chinese ceramists who view their work as a conscious

negotiation between tradition and innovation. Although espousing a practice that he

describes as artistically radical, Pei has maintained an affinity with the past that is

motivated by more than a general respect for precedent. This is perhaps only natural, given

his training in the mid-1980s at the Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute, located in a city with a

celebrated 1000-year-old history of porcelain production. Under the guidance of instructors

such as Li Linhong, Yao Yungkang, Hu Jinqiang, and Liu Xinyuan, he gained an understanding

of the unique ceramics history of Jingdezhen, a knowledge of traditional techniques of

forming and decorating porcelain vessels, and a strong grounding in contemporary painting

and sculpture.

身为苏州工艺美术职业技术学院教师的沛雪立把自己看作是许许多多中国当代陶艺家中的一员，这些陶艺家们常常

将他们的作品视为传统与创新之间的一种有意识的对话。尽管对其所称之为在艺术上激进的某种艺术实践持赞许的

态度，但是，沛雪立与过去的传统依然保持着一种亲和的关系，而促进这种亲和力的动因则是超越了对前人的一般

性的尊重。考虑到他曾于20世纪80年代中期就读于景德镇陶瓷学院——位于一座具有千年辉煌制瓷历史的城市，

因此，这一点或许是自然而然的了。在诸位导师的教诲下，如李林洪老师，姚永康老师，胡金强老师和刘新园老师

等，他全面了解到了景德镇独特的陶瓷史，学到了瓷器成型与装饰的传统工艺，并为当代绘画和雕塑创作打下了坚

实的基础。

Through his studies at the Ceramics Institute, Pei learned that connecting to the past and

determining the future need not be conceived as mutually exclusive activities, nor must

preference necessarily be given to one over the other. "Through the influence of my

teachers," he recalls, "I gradually recognized that an original and creative style can take

shape only when one understands the deep-rooted traditions of culture and art while paying

attention to and embracing avant-garde ideas. Ceramics produced in this way reveal both a

national spirit and the features of contemporary ceramic art." Suggesting a balance of

familiar and experimental traits, this characterization of successful ceramic work is an apt

description of Pei's own production during his nearly twenty-year career as a ceramist.

Through an impressive number of distinct but related series, he has worked with clay in an

effort to understand its history as a medium in China and to discover those as-yet-

unexplored aspects of its expressive potential.

通过他在陶瓷学院的学习，沛雪立认识到，并非一定要将沟通过去与确立未来视为相互排斥的实践活动，也无须偏

爱一方而轻视另一方。他认为：“在这些老师的影响下，我逐渐认识到，只有认真学习深厚文化艺术传统，同时关

注并接受最前沿的学术思想，才有可能形成个人富有原创性的艺术风格，创作具有民族精神和时代风貌的陶艺作品

。”作为陶艺家，他有着近二十的创作生涯，这种对陶艺创作成就的特性描述就是对沛雪立自身创作的一种十分恰

如其分的概述，它表明了一种普遍性与试验性这两个特性之间的一种平衡。通过数件给人以深刻印象，且风格迥异

，但相互关联的系列作品，他用手中的粘土辛勤创作，以期领悟粘土作为一种材料在中国的发展史，进而去发现那

些迄今为止仍然没有探求的各种潜在表现力。

Expression is clearly Pei's predominate concern. When he reflects upon the great ceramic

works of the past or other outstanding examples of Chinese art, he is relatively unconcerned

with distinctions between aspects such as utility and non-utility. Discerning a deeper level

of unity, he describes Chinese expressiveness as traditionally characterized by

exquisiteness and delicacy. While these qualities are embodied in the brushwork of

traditional Chinese painting and the carefully rendered details of other art forms, nowhere

are they more evident than in the masterfully decorated, brittle perfection of Chinese

porcelain. For Pei, the porcelain vessels of Jingdezhen have long defined one obvious end of

the spectrum of Chinese affinity for exquisiteness and delicacy. In contrast to these coolly

impeccable wares, the products of Yixing are warmly intimate, yet no less exquisite or

delicate. While Pei has worked in a variety of clay bodies, including one traditionally used

for brick making, he has gravitated primarily toward Jingdezhen porcelain and Yixing

stoneware, both of which are steeped in the history of a certain kind of aesthetic.

显而易见，表现力是沛雪立最优先考虑的问题。相比而言，当面对历史上的陶瓷名作或其他中国艺术杰作而陷入沉

思时，他并没有去关注诸如实用性与非实用性等这些因素之间的差异。考虑到更深一层的整体感，他把中国文化的

表现力描述为精致和微妙等传统审美特征。尽管这些特点具体地表现在中国的传统绘画和其他艺术形式的精心处理

的细节中，但，勿庸置疑，它们在任何方面都无法超越中国瓷器精彩绝伦的装饰和易碎的完美。对于沛雪立来说，

有一点十分明确，长久以来，景德镇的瓷器被视为中国人钟爱精致和微妙等审美特征这一领域的极至。与这些完美

得令人无可挑剔的瓷器形成对比的是，宜兴的产品给人以温暖怡人之感，但在精致和微妙上毫无逊色。虽然沛雪立

使用各种不同的泥坯进行创作，其中包括传统中用于制砖的泥坯，但他却深深迷恋着景德镇的瓷器和宜兴的陶器，

因为两者浸染于相同的审美历史之中。

For Pei, what makes these clay bodies relevant in the present is the fact that their

potential is not encompassed by a single mode of expressiveness. If exquisiteness and

delicacy have been masterfully explored in a certain vein over the centuries, other

variations have yet to be perfected, or even attempted in these media. The possibilities for

expressiveness in all materials are various,?Pei asserts. Traditional Chinese ceramic art

has left a gap to be filled regarding the expressiveness of the material through styles,

themes, and forms. In view of this, I have placed particular stress on exploring and

experimenting with the nature of clay for the past dozen years.? Over the last five years

alone, Pei has worked on at least seven different series simultaneously. Each is significant

for its focus on a distinct problem, and three in particular demonstrate the scope of Pei抯

practice: the Pottery Plaques, the Clay in Imagination Series, and the Cut Vessels.

对沛雪立来讲，目前赋予这些泥坯重要内涵的原因是其潜在的表现力并不只是包含着某种单一的表现模式。如果说

数世纪以来在某种风格上对精致和微妙已经进行了出色的探索，但其他形式却并没有得以完善，抑或甚至没有尝试

过这些材料。沛雪立认为：“一切材料的表现力都具有多方面的特质。就材料在体裁、题材、形态等方面的表现力

而言，中国传统陶瓷艺术尚有空白去填补。基于这种认识，十几年来，我所特别强调的是对于泥性的探索与实验”

。仅仅过去五年来，沛雪立就同时创作了至少七个不同系列的作品。每一个系列的作品都具有深刻的意义，因为它

关注某个十分明确的问题。有三个系列的作品特别表明了沛雪立艺术创作的领域：陶板系列、泥的畅想和切割器。

Although each of these series has been realized partly through traditional materials and

techniques, Pei's intention is essentially to invert the position of the medium within the

creative process. In the past, he observes, "materials and techniques were regarded as the

means toward ideal beauty: vehicles for an idea of exquisiteness and delicacy. What I aspire

to is ideal beauty that results from the aesthetic potential inherent in the materials and

techniques." Pei is interested, in other words, in an aesthetic that is at least partly

informed by the medium rather than simply imposed upon it. This does not, however,

constitute an outright rejection of the past or of the culturally specific aesthetic

qualities that he finds embodied there. On the contrary, Pei seeks a continuity with

historical Chinese ceramists even as he explores possibilities that they did not.

在这些系列的作品中，虽然每一个系列都在一定程度上运用了传统的材料和工艺完成的，但从根本上讲，沛雪立的

创作目的却是要在创作过程中颠倒这种媒材的地位。他认为，过去，“材料和工艺被视为实现理想美好的手段：精

致和微妙审美观念的载体。我所追求的是来自材料与工艺所包含的审美潜在表现力的理想美”。用另外的话来讲，

那就是沛雪立对某种审美抱有浓厚的兴趣，而这种美感至少在一定程度上通过媒材表现出来，而不是简单将强加于

身。尽管如此，这样并没有直接摒弃传统，或他认为已经特定文化内含的审美特性。恰恰相反，沛雪立在寻求一种

继承中国历史上的那些陶瓷业者的方式，甚至在他探索他们从未尝试探索过的各种可能表现手段的时候都是如此。

"By using different tools and techniques," he explains, "I allow the clay to take on forms in

delicate, exquisite, and boundless variation. These forms remind people of their particular

psychology and emotions. In aesthetic practices, the Chinese people have attached the

greatest importance to feeling for delicacy and exquisiteness. They recognize an aesthetic

effect when aspects of form are in harmony with the particular kinds of perceptions that

they have as Chinese people. This is the 'unique aesthetic feeling' that I want to express

in my work. I have placed special emphasis on it because it is difficult to achieve any rich

aesthetic connotations when one only presents the material characteristics of the clay

itself."

他谈到：“黏土在各种工具，手法的作用下具有微妙、细腻、无穷的形态变化。这些千变万化的形态会使人产生丰

富的心理和情绪上的感受.而中国人的审美习惯非常重视这种细腻.微妙的感受。当这些细腻微妙的形态变化，与

中国人特有的心理，情绪上的细腻.微妙的感知特征相吻合时，作品的审美意义就产生了。这也就是我在作品中所

要表达的"特有的美感"。我并非不注重"特有美感"的表达，而是特别重视它，因为仅仅表达黏土本身的特性是很难

在作品中产生丰富的审美内涵的。”

These physical characteristics are, however, points of departure, and in series such as the

Pottery Plaques, Pei begins with "meditation on the materials and forms." An original plan is

usually devised, but the final result is generally something quite different from what he

anticipates. "This is because I may encounter new effects and use these to make continuous

improvements upon the original idea through the stages of working," he explains. "An example

is the holes that occurred in some of the Pottery Plaques. These were air bubbles produced

while firing at high temperatures. This in itself was a failure, but unanticipated effects

were created by puncturing the bubbles." These tiny concavities with their fragile shell-like

rims are significant to the aesthetic of the Pottery Plaques in which they occur, since

these works might otherwise have conveyed an impression of monumentality. In other Pottery

Plaques the effect of delicacy is evoked through the use of stamps or an incising of the

surface in pseudo glyphs like the tiny impressions in a cuneiform tablet.

尽管如此，这些自然的特性就成为起点，而且在诸如《陶板》这样的系列伤口保，沛雪立是从“对材料和形态”的

思考与感悟开始的。虽然通常都会形成初步的想法，但最终结果往往与最初的设想有相当的差异。他进一步阐明到

：“这是因为在制作过程中不断发现新的效果，并运用这些效果不断改进最初设想而转化的结果。一个典型例证就

是陶板上出现的开孔，是因烧成温度过高而产生大量气泡，这本身是一种失败，但当将气泡打开就出现了难以预料

的效果。”这些细微的凹面，以及它们那些脆弱的如贝壳般的边缘对陶板系列中所出现的审美特性是十分重要的，

因为这些作品或许通过另一种方式传达出一种宏大的印象。在陶板的其他作品中，通过使用印模或仿浮雕一样在作

品表面刻画的方式来产生出精致的效果，恰如楔形泥板上细微的印痕。

The sense of small scale in the Pottery Plaques is a consequence of Pei's reflection upon

the traditional aesthetics of Chinese ceramics even as he explores new techniques. The

roughness of the clay and its monolithic presence as a thick vertical slab is brought subtly

under the influence of a taste for detail and a feeling for intimacy. Some of the Pottery

Plaques contain arched portals like those in ancient bastions or crenellation that suggests

fortress walls, but their diminutive scale gives them an appearance of delicacy more than of

fortitude. The Pottery Plaques are intended to depict "the world in a small picture," and as

a consequence they evoke nostalgia for something that is familiar but not quite present:

something commonplace made strangely distant, even mysterious, by a shift in scale. Through

intimate surface details Pei hopes to elicit "lingering memories and feelings that people

have for simplicity, remoteness, and purity."

陶板系列中以小见大的感受是沛雪立对中国陶瓷传统审美观深思冥想的结果，即使他在不断探索新的表现技法时也

是如此。对细节的偏爱和微妙的情感等因素所产生的影响构成了粘土的粗糙感及其如磐石一样存在的厚重垂直的泥

板。在泥板系列中，一些作品具有拱形门洞，恰如古代堡垒或代表着城堡高墙的雉形城墙，然而，它们这种微小的

比例却赋予它们一种精致的外观，而非坚固。创作泥板系列的目的就是描绘“一幅小图画中的世界”，其结果则是

它们勾起了对某种既熟悉，目前却又根本不在的事情的怀旧感：某种十分普通的事物，因比例的改变而使其变得出

乎意料的遥远，甚至充满了神秘感。通过这些微妙的表面细节变化，沛雪立希望籍此唤发出人们对古朴、久远、纯

真所怀有的缠绵与美好。

These qualities evoked by the Pottery Plaques seem to issue partly from the warm earthiness

of the clay itself, but in his Cut Vessels series Pei employs the very different medium of

porcelain to produce forms that are every bit as evocative of simplicity, remoteness, and

purity. The distinction is that the simplicity of the Cut Vessels seems not an aspect of

humbleness but the consequence of a reduction to primary elements; their sense of remoteness

derives not from nostalgia but from a cool aloofness; and their purity is elegantly refined

rather than primal. Icy and pristine, the Cut Vessels carry forward the general aesthetic of

traditional Jingdezhen porcelains, both blue and white and Qingbai. Splashes of cobalt on

pure white grounds and the pooling of pale bluish glaze under rims and in surface

impressions recall the traits that made Jingdezhen porcelain coveted by the imperial courts

of the Ming dynasty, the caliphs of the Middle East and the aristocracy of Baroque-age

Europe.

从某种程度上讲，由陶板系列产生的这些特性似乎来自粘土自身所包含的那种温暖的泥性，但是，在他的切割器系

列中，沛雪立却使用了极其不同的媒材——瓷来创作从整体上能够令人不由得想到古朴、久远、纯真的作品造型。

这种差异就是切割系列中的古朴似乎并不是卑微的一面，而是简化至最基本要素的结果；它们那种遥远感并不是源

自怀旧，而是生成于一种冷峻的距离感，它们那种纯真是经过精心修饰的，而非最原始的状态。冷峻，古朴，切割

器系列继承并发展了景德镇传统瓷器最基本的审美思想，无论是在青花，还是在青白上。在纯白底上泼染钴蓝，在

口沿下和作品表现的刻画纹理中凝结淡青色的釉料，这使得人们不由想到构成景德镇瓷器的特色，而景德镇瓷器则

是明代皇亲国戚、中东哈里发和巴洛克时代欧洲贵族们渴望得到的。

At the same time Pei's techniques are far from traditional. "I have tried to use as many

tools as possible," he says. "These include steel wire, blades, various shapes of wooden

rods, iron wire, nails, screws, twigs, pieces of stone, and wooden hammers. However, I most

often pat the clay with my hands." Consequently, in the Cut Vessels the impressions of

fingertips are frequently a prominent trait. A serious flaw in historical Chinese porcelain

wares, these marks of the hand are at home on the surfaces of Pei's expressive works. If

they constitute a nod to contemporary values of expressive spontaneity in the working of

clay however, they are also functionally equivalent to the combed marks on traditional

Qingbai vessels that channel the glaze into faint bluish patterns. As a result, the Cut

Vessels simultaneously express a fresh perspective and bear traces of tradition.

与此同时，沛雪立的技巧已远远脱离了传统。他说：“我尽可能采用更多的工具，如：钢丝线、刀片、各种形状的

木棒、铁丝、铁丝、钉子、螺丝、树枝、石块、木锤等等。但多数是用手拍的”。其结果则是，在切割器系列中，

指尖的印痕经常是一种最显著的特征。在中国历史上的瓷器中，手留下的这些痕迹都是严惩的瑕疵，而在沛雪立那

些具有深厚表现力的作品表面上却运用得恰如其分。如果说它们对当代陶艺创作中所存在的无意识表现的价值是一

种肯定的话，那么，它们的作用就如同传统青白器皿上的篦纹，这样的篦纹使釉色变成隐约可见的青色花纹。其结

果则是，切割器系列同时表现了一种新的视角，并承载了传统的印迹。

The Clay in Imagination series which has evolved largely through cutting both porcelain and

stoneware clay with steel wire ? derives its name from Pei's attempt to unleash "an unlimited

imagination and an upsurge of emotions as I am confronted with the clay. I try to break away

from established forms and to follow my own will and express my feelings. The works have no

specific symbolic meanings except for a sense of speed and sharpness. This is very

interesting as it goes somewhat against the conception of the gentleness of clay. People are

accustomed to expressions of softness in clay, but I have chosen a way of working that

displays a tearing and sharpness of clay."

泥的畅想系列在很大程度上是通过使用钢丝来切割瓷土和粗陶土来完成的，这个系列取名于沛雪立的一次尝试，那

就是“追求面对黏土心中澎湃起伏的无限遐想。抛开一切规范的束缚，任意挥洒、无羁发泄，抒发胸臆。这些作品

没有特殊的象征意义，只是觉得有一种速度感和锐利感，这与黏土的温和、柔润感似乎有某种概念上的悖论，很有

意思。通常人们都习惯于追求泥的柔媚，而我却同时反常的展现泥的刚利和撕裂感。”

What ties the Clay in Imagination, Cut Vessels, and Pottery Plaques together and links them

to the other series on which Pei has worked in recent years is really more a question yet to

be resolved than a predetermined idea. By approaching clay through various forms and

techniques, he hopes to discover points at which the results of his experiments coincide. In

his appreciation of "the different and

ever-changing qualities of the clay and the rich and delicate feeling that it can express,"

he clearly respects his medium. The goal, however, is not so much to understand clay as to

comprehend the significance of the forms that it can take and how these relate to human

feeling. "My hope," Pei explains, "is that the viewers of my work will experience the same

emotional changes that I do when looking at the delicate transformations in different forms.

Works by any artist should have their specific characteristics and meanings, but they should

not indulge in self-admiration. In my work I have paid much attention to integrating

uniqueness with 'general human feeling'. This is an important foundation for communication."

是什么把《陶板系列》、《泥的畅想》和《切割器》等这些系列作品联系在一起，并把它们与沛雪立近年来创作的

其它系列作品联系在一起呢？这与其说确实是一个预先确定的想法，不如说它是一个尚未解决的问题。通过各种形

式和技巧处理粘土，他希望能够发现其试验的结果能够相互一致的融合点。他十分倾情于“泥性多种形态的丰富变

化与丰富微妙的情感、情绪变化”，显而易见，他尤其珍视他手中的材料。然而，这个目标并非就是象了解粘土那

样去理解粘土所具有的各种形态的意义，以及它们与人的情感之间的关系。沛雪立这样阐明自己的观点：“我希望

公众在看着这些作品时能和我一样感受和享受到不同形态的微妙变化所产生的不同情感变化带来的快感。艺术家的

作品需要有独到之处,有个性,有新意.但不能是孤芳自赏的。我在创作时很注重‘人类普遍情感’在‘独特’作品

中的灌注。这是沟通的重要基础”。

此文发表于《美国陶艺月刊》