Shiwan-Collect-Schmalix
In 1999 I opened with some friends a gallery in Chinatown of Los Angeles. The street where we rented the space was at that time pretty desolated except of a couple of stores that is selling the usual mixture of “old” and fake antiques. One of the stores had a few old– so called- Mudmen. They are mass productions of ceramic figures from Shiwan, Guangdong. For some reason they caught my attention. I guess it was my love for ceramic (I made myself quite a lot of ceramic sculptures) or just the desire to take home something Chinese from the place where I set up my little side business that made me buy a little old man with a white beard. The owner of the store who was born in Shiwan but came to America when he was a young boy, explained me where these little ceramics came from and showed me also a big book of the collection of Mr. Woo Kam Qiu that was donated to the Hong Kong Museum. That book made a big impression on me. I had never seen before “real” ceramics from Shiwan. The artistry and the craftsmanship seemed to me very unique among Chinese ceramic. Even the glazes that are supposed to be imitations of other kiln productions are in my opinion very distinctive “Shiwan”. I instantly fell in love with this pottery and started to look in every Chinese store in Los Angeles if I could find some good old pieces. Very soon I had a small collection of figures and objects. But the great change for my collecting happened when I had the chance to meet Mr. Albert Cheng through a dealer in San Francisco. I had already seen the catalog of an exhibition of Shiwan ware in San Francisco that Mr. Cheng had curated. His collection is the finest in America and by getting to know him a dream came true. He introduced me to the ISCA and I had the honor to become a member of this association. Mr. Ken Loo, the motor of the ISCA became my greatest inspiration, my teacher, advisor, translator and helper in all Shiwan matters. And I really needed him! It is not an easy task to be a lonely collector in Los Angeles, without any knowledge of the Chinese languages. A short time after my beginning of collecting it became clear that I had no chance in improving my collection if I would rely only on the area of LA. The Internet is a good help for a guy in my situation. So I started to browse in auction sites and I also bid on a few items on eBay. Some of my best pieces I got there, admittedly a long while ago, at ridiculously low prices. (It looks like that these times are over…). But through eBay I got to know a seller, Patrick Lau, who became not only my biggest supplier of Shiwan ceramics but also a good friend who taught me many things about Chinese culture and life. I trust him blindly with his impeccable taste for quality. I could talk with him for hours about ceramic, Chinese opera, paintings, and martial art. Unfortunately we have to do this on the phone because we live on opposite sides of the American continent.
Very early in my hunt for Shiwan objects I encountered “Roof Tile” figures. At the moment when I saw the first piece I knew that these were the essence of what Shiwan meant to me. In them I can see the real southern exuberance for detail, color, passion and the love for theater. Luckily I was able to acquire a few pieces.