Virtual Dialogue Featuring Xiaoyi Diana Yang and Angelika Kuettner

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For our June Virtual Dialogue, Xiaoyi Diana Yang, PhD Candidate and Teaching Fellow at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City, will share a lecture on Zhangzhou porcelains, known as “Swatow ware” to Western collectors and connoisseurs. Diana will explore how this fascinating group of export porcelains from southern China found homes in Japan and Southeast Asia from the 17th century onward. She received a research grant from the Decorative Arts Trust in 2020 in support of this dissertation project.

Ming-era Chinese consumers did not cherish Zhangzhou wares, which featured freehand decoration and sandy foot ornamentation. Yet the spontaneous painting and dynamic composition of Zhangzhou ceramics caught the attention of Edo-Japanese tastemakers, who appreciated these wares as both utilitarian objects and artistic masterpieces. 

By highlighting representative examples from Japanese and Dutch museum collections, the lecture will recount a remarkable rags-to-riches story of Zhangzhou porcelains after they left their place of origin. 

Following the presentation, Angelika Kuettner, Associate Curator of Ceramics at Colonial Williamsburg, will join Diana in conversation. The program concludes with a Q&A session with the audience. We hope you can join us! 

The Decorative Arts Trust hosts monthly virtual dialogues that feature scholars sharing and discussing their exciting new research with experts in the field. The hour-long Zoom program includes a lecture, scholar-to-scholar conversation, and Q&A with the program participants.

Registration fee: Pay What You Can 

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Read the Bulletin post about this program.