I’m Living In An Archaeology Dig!

I’m apparently living out my dream in an Archaeology Dig!  Students were told today that in the building of the new college library here on campus, they found a massive ancient burial ground!  According to what I’ve been told, they estimate at least 1400 years old.  They believe that the people here were commoners who died peacefully, and after looking at the bodies, they are certainly mostly whole.  It is incredibly fascinating to see.  The students are allowed to simply wander around the burial spots at least until Monday when they will be closed off by the historians and archeologists.  I’ll post more pictures soon.  So Cool!!

Chinese Artist: Wang Bu

“Vases with Bird-and-Flower Painting” by Wang Bu (1898–1968)

Artist

Wang Bu was a 20th Century Chinese artist that specialized in working with Ceramics.  He was officially trained in the blue and white art, working under an expert tutor for several years.  Wang Bu’s first significant work came when popular ceramic artist, Wu Aisheng, hired him to design porcelain items in the style so popular during the Ming and Qing periods.  He would continue working with porcelain and ceramics for the rest of his life, preferring to decorate them in the blue and white coloring his father and mentor had loved.

Wang Bu made two great contributions to the art field.  First, He created the innovative method of using Chinese brush drawing to add the blue and white colors onto his ceramics and porcelain works ~ a technique that many other artists would soon pick up.  Second, he invented a “coloring pigment” by using the Chinese ink painting technique.  This pigment helped the colors used on ceramics to stay bright and colorful, as opposed to dulling and spotting as it dried.  

He briefly abandoned the blue and white style  during the tumultuous period of WWII an the Anti-Japanese War. However, he would later return to his roots, and eventually earned the title “King of Blue and White.  In the sixty years that he worked, he designed millions of works, many of which are still famous today.

Influences

• His father, Xiuquing, who was an expert in blue and white painting. 
• Xu Yousheng, his teacheer and another expert artist that worked with blue and white painting.
• Ming and Qing Dynasty ceramic artists.

Stylistic Characteristics

• Blue and White Coloring ~ particularly over-glazed with colors underneath or paste on paste.
• Ceramics and Porcelain canvases.
• Use of Chinese brush drawing or ink painting.
• Bright, smooth coloring.
• He seems to have like flowers, animals, and natural subjects.
• His signature in his later years was often “the old man Taoqing.” 

“Fisherman Nets 4,000-year-old Pagan Figurine”

by Pete Thomas via “GrindTV“

Nikolay Tarasov pulls Bronze Age artifact, carved in bone and said to be worth more than its weight in gold, from Siberian river

“A fisherman dragging a net through a river in Siberia thought he had snagged a rock. Instead he had snared what experts believe is a 4,000-year-old pagan god figurine.

Nikolay Tarasov, 53, considered throwing the 12-inch statuette back, until he wiped away the muck and saw that a ferocious-looking face had been carved into the artifact.
“I pulled it in by getting my pal to help and I was going to chuck it away,” he told the Siberian Times. “But then I stopped when I saw it was a stone with a face. I washed the thing in the river—and realized it was a statuette.”

On the back of the figurine, snagged in the community of Tisul, was what looked like hair, carved behind the head.

Tarasov was told that the relic could be worth its weight in gold, but decided to donate his rare catch to a local museum, free of charge. “Experts there quite literally jumped for joy, and quite high!” he said.

It was later determined, with the help of experts, that the statuette had been carved in horn, probably during the Bronze Age. . . . .”

READ MORE

“Over 1,000 Ancient Buddha Statues Uncovered in China”

by April Holloway via “Epoch Times“

“Archaeologists have discovered more than 1,000 ancient Buddha statues in three stone caves on a cliff-face in Yangqu County, in north China’s Shanxi Province, according to a report in China.org.cn. Although official dating has not yet been carried out, it is believed that the statues date back to the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming dynasty, was the ruling dynasty of China for 276 years (1368–1644 AD) following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by some as “one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history”, was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic Han Chinese. The creation of stone Buddha statues reached its peak during the period from the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589) to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), so it is rare to find stone Buddha statues from the Ming Dynasty.

According to traditional accounts, Buddhism was introduced in China during the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) after an emperor dreamed of a flying golden man thought to be the Buddha. Although the archaeological record confirms that Buddhism was introduced sometime during the Han dynasty, it did not flourish in China until the Six Dynasties period (220-589 AD). The year 67 CE saw Buddhism’s official introduction to China with the coming of the two monks Moton and Chufarlan.

The latest finding including stone statues carved into the cave walls and measuring 12 to 25 centimetres long, said Yang Jifu, director of the county’s cultural heritage tourism bureau. Yang said two of the caves had been restored in the Ming Dynasty, according to the record on two steles in the caves. . . . .”

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Current Exhibition: Flowers of the Four Seasons in Chinese and Japanese Art

I Might Actually Get To See This One Myself! ** DB

Who: St. Louis Art Museum

What: Flowers of the Four Seasons in Chinese and Japanese Art

When: February 7, 2014 – September 1, 2014

Where: Gallery 225 at the art museum

One Fine Arts Drive

Forest Park

St. Louis, MO 63110

How Much: Free!

Further Information:

• SLAM’s Website
• Calling the Museum at (314) 721-0071