The idea for this competition came when modelling with a porcelain body. It had a mind of its own and had no desire to be like other bodies for hand modelling, which will do anything without putting up any resistance. This body had to be accepted as a partner and compromises had to be made – which paid off with the gleaming white end product. It gladdens the heart of the artist and the observer, which is how it was when porcelain was invented and Kaendler used it for artistic purposes in the Baroque Age. What was more appropriate then than to give a new lease on life to this subject in the beautiful Baroque city of Varazdin.
Kaendler had great respect for the material, which was unique in the world at that time and was coveted by the greatest royal houses. He did not model direct in porcelain, using instead as he was accustomed a plastic body, taking a plaster cast of the finished piece and casting the individual forms in porcelain slip. He needed a large number of piece moulds to be able to fit in the undercuts in a jacket mould.
Today we are more easygoing. This complex process takes too much effort. We take the porcelain body as it is and adapt ourselves to its requirements. We can no longer expect workability and plasticity after the experience with plastic clay. Porcelain is not as plastic and already objects to protruding parts during modelling. During the firing, it allows them to slump and teaches the artist to pay attention to the strength of the form and to the danger of deformation.
This demand arising from high-temperature firing that produces a vitrified, translucent material cannot yet nowadays be made a requirement in this field of ceramic artistry. To achieve a pure white, the use of different material and a lower firing porcelain has been permitted. A further concession has been made concerning painting. The use of traditional media and methods was not compulsory. This decision was not made following ceramic tradition but following tradition free modern art.
In this international competition that is taking place in a country where working with porcelain has no tradition and where, in contrast to other countries, especially Japan and the USA, porcelain is not yet a widespread artistic material, in this country, then, eastern and western cultural habits meet. That is one of the enticing aspects.
The other one points towards the situation in general. What is being aimed at here is to give encouragement stimulation. The competition is intended to appeal to those whose work shows signs of deserving support. Above and beyond any judgements about these matters, there is a duty to ensure that the general development is fostered even if the aim is not fulfilled in all details. That means that the global consensus of art criticism weighs less than recognising the individual artist's abstract thought and feeling.