Yao Zhiyuan, a native of Yixing, Jiangsu province, was born in 1971, the son of the Yixing pottery master Wang Yinxian (1943–2018, maker of lots 3 and 10). Yao began his career at the Yixing Purple Clay Factory and learned potting techniques of all kinds under his mother’s guidance. Yao further studied art history theory and design methods at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, starting in 1992. Upon his graduation, Yao returned to Yixing and continued to make pottery at the Wang Yinxian studio.
A teapot of very similar design made by Yao Zhiyuan is illustrated by Wang Yinxian in A Collection of Purple Clay Pottery by Wang Yinxian, Taipei, 1997, p.211.
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Contemporary Clay: Yixing Pottery from the Irving Collection
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