The meaning of art and artist seems to be less important in the modern times compared to the past. Rarely would people associate art with the quality of life. For most, it is hard to comprehend Friedrich Schlegel’s saying, “All artists are self-sacrificing human beings, and to become an artist is nothing but to devote oneself to the subterranean gods.” Here, you’d better not take “gods” literally or associate it with religion. I believe what Schlegal means is the spiritual significance of art.
In 1998, I was fortunate enough to visit Wenzhi Zhang’s ceramics exhibition, “Chinese Nationality,” at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing. After having seen over a hundred pieces, I was touched by the sensuality of her work. I would like to thank the artist for her contribution to the spiritual prosperity and happiness to this world and to each individual. Through her art, I realized that she is a woman who devotes her life to art and clay. Her art works are her life sacrifices in the name of clay.
The relationship between Wenzhi and her ceramic art is quite similar to the relationship between a devoted believer and his religion. This reminds me of a quote by a philosopher, “only those who have their own religion and have unlimited, unconventional understandings, can be true artists.” Wenzhi Zhang is a representative of those artists with her “religion.” Her biographical article titled “Let the Clay Speak” couldn’t have been well structured without the attachment of clay and art as her religion. This short article of hers is the scripture of her own “religion.”
Wenzhi Zhang is an honest and straightforward person, a woman who starts with her article with “I do like to have the half-awake and half-drunk feeling after a small drink.” She continues to say that it is wind that bestows her with the extraordinary mental outlook, which facilitates the successive birth of “Messengers of God,” “Soul of the Forest,” and “Wine Community.” From this I can say that Wenzhi Zhang has mastered the religion of art. The half-awake and half-drunk state that she speaks of represents the stimulation and readiness for art creation from the perspective of the beginning of art. This state of mind facilitates her to “get everything from her heart, every detail is both the subject and the object, the metaphysical and the physical.” She was once asked whether she paid more attention to the feminine art features in the course of her ceramic creation, and her response was “I never think of the difference between female art and male art.” This seems to be quite unusual coming from a contemporary female artist. I believe that whether a female artist care about the features of female art has nothing to do with her judgment in art. It is necessary to point out that Wenzhi Zhang’s answer did not mean that there are no feminine features in her works. However, it reveals the basic attitude taken by Wenzhi Zhang towards art. She realizes that art exists in the inherent life (the object) and the same time it exists in the art creator (the subject). From the context of her article about this art problem, she means that she is a woman and also an ordinary person, yet as long as she takes art seriously and treats herself well, her art can be related to people and particular to women. In terms of art, the most fundamental human factor should be the transcendence over the gender preference. If we take another look at her art, we can clearly sense the feminine features, particularly in terms of the treatment of subject materials and the interpretation of the themes. Her works are featured with fortitude tinted with flexibility, roughness tinted with elegance, and crudeness tinted with delicacy.
Wenzhi Zhang is an energetic and high-spirited female artist blessed with the power of creativity. This shows not only through the quality of her art, but also the quantity of her art. In recent years, she expanded the scope and style of her pottery works. Thus, it makes perfect sense that she will be a leading figure in the art world with this kind of development momentum.
In the spiritual law of life, Wenzhi Zhang’s ceramic art gives more prominence to the style of the modern culture, which contributes to her openness to the culture. On one hand, she still abides by the traditional rules of ceramic art, but on the other hand, she boldly injects new vitality into the oldest art form. It can be expected that she will have greater achievements in her pursuit of ceramic art.