Chang Dai-chien or Zhang Daqian (; 10 May 1899 – 2 April 1983) was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a guohua (traditionalist) painter, by the 1960s he was also renowned as a modern impressionist and expressionist painter. In addition, he is regarded as one of the most gifted master forgers of the twentieth century.
Background
Chang was born in 1899 in Sichuan Province to a financially struggling but artistic family, whose members had converted to Roman Catholicism. His first commission came at age 12, when a traveling fortune-teller requested he paint her a new set of divining cards. At age 17 he was captured by bandits while returning home from boarding school in Chongqing. When the bandit chief ordered him to write a letter home demanding a ransom, he was so impressed by the boy's brushmanship that he made the boy his personal secretary. During the more than three months that he was held captive, he read books of poetry which the bandits had looted from raided homes.
In 1917, Chang moved to Kyoto to learn textile dyeing techniques. He later returned to Shanghai in 1919 and established a successful career selling his paintings.
The governor of Qinghai, Ma Bufang, sent Chang to Sku'bum to seek helpers for analyzing and copying Dunhuang's Buddhist art.
Due to the political climate of China in 1949, he left the country and then moved to Mendoza, Argentina in 1952. Two years later, he resided in São Paulo, Brazil.
In the 1967 Chang settled in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. During their stay, he and his wife lodged at the Dolores Lodge, owned by Thomas Chew and currently known as the Carmel Country Inn, situated at the intersection of Dolores Street and 3rd Avenue. They stayed in a distinctive cabin that had a set of connected rooms. By 1968, they had relocated to their personal residence, which the artist dubbed 'K'e-yi Chu' - meaning "barely habitable" or "just okay" when translated. Their home was situated on the western side of Crespi Avenue, precisely six houses south of Mountain View Avenue.
They toured extensively around Northern California. Chang's first California solo exhibition in 1967 at Stanford University attracted an opening reception crowd of a thousand. Finally he settled in Taipei, Taiwan in 1978. During his years of wandering he had several wives simultaneously, curried favor with influential people, and maintained a large entourage of relatives and supporters. He also kept a pet gibbon. He affected the long robe and long beard of a scholar.
A meeting between Chang and Picasso in Nice, France in 1956 was viewed as a summit between the preeminent masters of Eastern and Western art. The two men exchanged paintings at this meeting.
Artistic career
In the early 1920s, Chang started pursuing professional studies in Shanghai, where he studied with two famous artists, Zeng Xi and Li Ruiqing. His elder brother Zhang Shanzi, who was a famous painter at the time, brought him to a literary salon in 1924 where his first appearance impressed the attendants. His first exhibition of 100 paintings was in 1925 at Ningbo Association in Shanghai.
In the late 1920s and 1930s, Chang moved to Beijing where he befriended other famous artists, including Yu Feian, Wang Shensheng, Ye Qianyu, Chen Banding, Qi Baishi, and Pu Xinyu. Chang had collaborated with Pu on painting and calligraphy. At the time, there was an idiom "Chang from the south, Pu from the north (南張北溥)" for those two of the most renowned artists in China. There was also a saying that Chang was "southern counterpart of Pu Xinyu in shan-shui painting, Qi Baishi in flower-and-bird painting, and Xu Cao in figure painting".
In the 1930s he worked out of a studio on the grounds of the Master of the Nets Garden in Suzhou. In 1933, while an exhibition of modern Chinese paintings organized by Xu Beihong was held in Paris, France, and Zhang's exhibited painting "Golden Lotus (金荷)" was purchased by the French government. In 1935, he accepted the invitation from Xu Beihong to be a professor at National Central University Art Department in Nanjing. In the same year, his portfolio was published in Shanghai. In 1936, his personal exhibition was held in the United Kingdom.