Message #1939

[Pat - 查尚杰]

Peter

Stick to your (our) motto.  Collect out of love and dont care about what others think.  Unknown works from unknown artists that we love is still art, and just maybe it will take several generations for them to become popular.  So few artists become popular during their lifetime.  It is fair to say that this hobby is like fighting windmills.  Too many people are too private about their collecting style in this hobby, and I think this is one of the major reasons that these artists dont get the attention they deserve.  Their bottles just dissappear in a big hidden void and are mostly never seen again. In addition, as you indicate, the artists themselves also probably dont do enough personal PR, in order for them to get noticed on a wider scale. 

On the other hand though... it is fair to say that there were probably at least 50-100 IPB painters at the turn of the century, but even then (and to some extent still now) only Zhou Leyuan, Ma ShaoXuan, Ding Erzhong, Ye Zhongsan get the real respect they deserve.  Only recently have artists like Ma Shou Xian, Ma Guang Yu, Yong Shou Tian, Yan Yutian, Chen Zhongsan, Bi Rongjiu, Sun Xingwu, Le San, and some others started to become popular.   This is after over 100 years!  So I guess we can say that in reality not so much has changed.

If you look at some of the bottle pics that George posted from my 'missing' names list, you can see that some of these painters are indeed darn good, great even.  The sad part for them and for us, is that we may never find out who they really are/were.  And THAT is the fault of the collectors who dont share AND the fault of the artists who dont profile properly or disclose all the pen names they use.

So I go back to your (our) premise.  Collect out of love....