Simplicity is Beauty—Chinese Ceramics of the Song Dynasty

Dr. Yan-ming Ip

Collectors' candid descriptions of the joys, surprises, and disappointments experienced in building their collections are as established part of the Curator's Circle Program. Therefore, it was quite a surprise to hear from Dr. Yan-ming Ip that one of his greatest disappointments had come while preparing for his Denver visit. In the course of his research for the conversation with Curator Ronald Otsuka, he followed up a hunch that something was not quite right with the body of one of his most prized objects, though thermoluminescence testing had dated it to the Song Dynasty. The dreadful and irrefutable conclusion that it was a fake came with the aid of a simple x-ray, which clearly showed a join between the body of the vase and its base. The base was genuine Song-dynasty ceramic, but forgers had cleverly attached to it a top of recent vintage. Dr. Ip expressed his gratitude to the Denver audience for making this discovery possible—no grudges held!

Dr. Ip showed slides of perhaps a quarter of his two hundred piece collection, and these amply demonstrated his assertion that, in Song ceramics at least, "simplicity is beauty." In his opinion, the absence of decoration "speaks to the mind and resonates with the heart" in a way that decoration cannot. After a tiring sixteen-hour day in his busy Hong Kong psychiatric practice, he says that nothing can relay him more than quiet contemplation of his elegant, classic Song objects.

Appreciation is an important prerequisite to building and enjoying a collection, and both the conversation and the workshop the following day helped put the objects into a very human perspective. The conversation focused on the development of different styles and innovative glazing techniques used by the Song potters, while the workshop explored the art of tea drinking and the objects related to this important part of Song life. Thefamous black glazes on Song tea bowls were, for example, used to accentuate the whiteness of the tea powder, and the subtle depression beow the lip of the bowls was to add to the comfort and thus heighten the appreciation.


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