Lecong was born in Anhui Province in East China. After high school, he came to Groningen for his Bachelor’s degree in Art History. “It was the only Bachelor’s program taught entirely in English and, moreover, included not only art but also the history of architecture and landscape.” He then specialized in the dissemination of Chinese ceramics in the West at Utrecht University. It wasn't until an internship at the Rijksmuseum, where he curated his first small solo exhibition, that he became acquainted with the Groninger Museum's collection, one of the four major museum collections in the Netherlands. Unlike the Rijksmuseum, Princessehof, and Kunstmuseum Den Haag, the rich collection in Groningen wasn't on public display at the time, since former curator and connoisseur Christiaan Jörg left in 2003.
“I lived in Groningen for three years during my bachelor's degree, but I didn't see much of the collection during that time.” You had to make an appointment to visit the depot, and that's exactly what Lecong later did.
15,000 CERAMIC OBJECTS
With Jörg, he created the current exhibition, Dragons & Demons — 5,000 Years of Asian Ceramics from the Anders Collection. They compiled it from the Anders' collection, which is now on long-term loan to the Groninger Museum. The entire Groningen collection has grown historically from what was assembled here since the 17th century. “Quantitatively, the ceramics collection is one of the largest in the Netherlands, with some 15,000 objects,” says Lecong. “Its value lies not in a few absolute masterpieces, like those in the Rijksmuseum, but precisely in the examples that demonstrate the development of trade and the influence of Asian porcelain on Dutch pottery. These are study pieces, therefore, of great academic importance. Jörg collected these, published on them, and thus became the leading expert worldwide. The Groninger Museum collection, which he used as a model, became an important benchmark not only for academics, but also for auction houses, art dealers, and the like.”
There is a difference between the two: where Jörg looked from a Dutch perspective, Lecong does so from a Chinese perspective. “Besides Jingdezhen, the main production center for porcelain traded by the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie - VOC), there are more than fifty major production centers in China and Japan.” While we consider Delftware to be our own, Lecong sees Chinese porcelain for the domestic market as such.
EXPORT PORCELAIN
Lecong is primarily interested in the material objects and the production process: the special technique used for making them, the composition of the porcelain, and the firing temperatures required. He's more interested in aesthetics than in aesthetics. “The images on export porcelain were created to meet Dutch needs and often based on Dutch examples. The Chinese painter didn't know what it depicted. He recreated it as closely as possible.”
“Everything is already known about masterpieces; there's no honor to be gained from them,” he laughs. He sees opportunities for collaborations with contemporary artists. But he also warns against the generalizations in current art: there's hardly any difference between a Chinese artist and someone from another part of the world. “I also want to emphasize their own character, for example, the difference between Chinese porcelain and Delftware.” After all, the Chinese dragon is very different from the Western one…
The exhibition Dragons & Demons — 5000 Years of Asian Ceramics from the Anders Collection can be seen at the Groninger Museum until 21 June 2026.
✍️ Steven Kolsteren
📸 Christopher Smith (photos Lecong)
This article previously appeared in KUNST. magazine #3 (pp. 26-27).