Daqian Zhang

Background

Chang was born in Neijiang, Sichuan, China, on May 10, 1899, to a poor artistic family. His elder brother, Zhang Shanzi, was an artist famous for his tiger paintings.

Education

Chang Dai-chien received his first drawing lessons from his mother. His first artworks were mostly silhouettes of animals and flowers. He had his first commission at the age of 12 when a travelling fortune-teller asked him to paint her a new set of divining cards.

At age 17 Dai-chien was captured by bandits when returning home from boarding school in Chongqing. The bandit leader commanded him to write a letter home demanding a ransom and he was so impressed by the Chang Dai-chien’s brush calligraphy that he made him his personal secretary. For more than three months that he was held captive, he read books of poetry which the bandits had robbed during their raids.

In 1917 Chang Dai-chien, accompanied by his elder brother, Zhang Shanzi, Daqian went to Japan, where he studied textile dyeing techniques. Two years later, he went to Shanghai to receive traditional painting instruction from two famous calligraphers and painters of the time: Zeng Xi and Li Ruiqing.

Career

Chang established a successful career selling his artworks. By the age of 30, he had achieved significant fame and had become the subject of exhibitions in China and abroad. In the 1930s the artist worked out of a studio on the grounds of the Master of the Nets Garden in Suzhou. In his Four Landscapes, sceneries of Jiangnan (southern Yangtze) were vividly depicted with a unique composition. Dedicated to the artist’s friend as a present, this set of works was created in the summer of 1932 in Zhejiang.

The start of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 started a period of war and revolution that constantly disrupted Chang's artistic efforts, forcing him into flight several times. In 1939 he found refuge in the remote desert outpost of Tun-huang, where he spent more than two years copying the legendary murals in the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas.

In 1940 Chang Dai-chien led a group of artists in copying the Buddhist wall paintings in the Mogao and Yulin caves. Due to the political climate of China, he left the country in 1949 and moved to Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil. Chang continued to exhibit his art in the United States and Europe. He met Pablo Picasso in 1956 in Nice, France. This meeting was heralded as an artistic meeting between East and West. The two men exchanged their artworks at this meeting.

In the late 1950s, Chang Dai-chien's deteriorating eyesight led him to develop his splashed colour, or Pocai, style. By the end of the 1960s, Chang bought two houses in California on the Monterey Peninsula: he lived in them for most of the next decade. The artist befriended many Bay Area artists and art historians and also had exhibitions in Northern California. In the 1970s, he mentored painter Minol Araki. Chang moved to Taipei, Taiwan, in 1978.

In addition to his respected original artworks, Chang became equally infamous for his recreations of Chinese masterpieces. He spent considerable time and effort to emulate the traditional techniques and styles of preceding artists. His copies spanned 1,000 years of Chinese art and demonstrateed a virtuoso talent for emulating, and even improving upon, the work of painters before him.

Achievements

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  Chang Dai-chien is one of the best-known and most astonishing Chinese artists of the twentieth century. In addition, he is regarded as one of the most gifted master forgers of his time. Over the course of his career, he created an average of over 500 works per year.
  
  As a painter, he had his own unique style and was one of the greatest painters in the history of modern art. In 2011 Zhang Daqian became the best-selling artist in the world, even surpassing Pablo Picasso.
  
  Chang Dai-chien's final residence, Moye-jingshe, next to the National Palace Museum of Taipei has become the Memorial Museum of Chang Dai-chien. The Memorial Hall covers an area of 1060 square meters. It encompasses five exhibition areas, which feature artworks from the various periods of his life.
  
  Today, his paintings may be found in the National Palace Museum, Taipei City; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and others.

Works

More photos

• Image of avalokiteshvara

  • Image of avalokiteshvara

• painting

  • Lotus and Mandarin Ducks

  • unknown title

  • Beauty in Red Hair-kerchief, Wooden Shoes, White Robe, Bamboos

  • Lotus

  • Splashed-color Landscape

  • Lotus

  • unknown title

  • Lotus

  • Peach Blossom Spring

  • Painting after Shitao’s Wilderness Colors

  • unknown title

  • Children Playing under a Pomegranate Tree

  • Lotus

  • unknown title

  • Lotus

  • Mist at Dawn

  • Crimson lotuses on gold screen

  • Early Snow

  • Crabapple Blossoms

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Untitled

  • Cane-walking picture

  • Crutch grolsch

Personality

An extremely social man with many friends, Chang Dai-chien wore long scholar’s robes and a flowing beard and maintained a large entourage of relatives and admirers. Dai-chien modeled himself, in many respects, after the literati artists of ancient China.

The artist kept a pet gibbon.

Connections

Brother:

Zhang Shanzi

References

• Challenging the past: the paintings of Chang Dai-chien Book by Shen C. Y. Fu, Jan Stuart.
  1991
• Chang Dai-Chien: The Enigmatic Genius, from the Banshan Feng and Jingyu Tant Collections This catalogue documents some 72 works by Chang Dai-chien, mostly unpublished, collected by two men of single-minded passion for this 20th-century phenomenon of modern Chinese art.
  2001
• Lion among Painters: Chinese Master Chang Dai Chen Book by Liu Yang.
  1998