P R E F A C E

 

        Zhang Daqian is undoubtedly a typical artist of China in the field of fine arts in the twentieth century. Traveling around most part of China in the first half of his life, Zhang Daqian went abroad when he was middle-aged, without changing his own idea in painting under the influence of various styles in Western art, though. He came to Taiwan in his advanced age and lived there until death.

        Not only good at paintings of landscape, flowers, figures, and animals in gongbi (the meticulous brushwork) and the style to express conceptions, he was also an expert in calligraphy and seal cutting. Xu Beihong once praised him as the 濖irst most talented artist in recent five hundred years./p>

        Vigorous as he was, Zhang Daqian enjoyed great fame in the art world at his thirties. In 1929, he was invited to be an acting council member for national exhibitions of fine art, responsible for the review of the exhibits coming to show. Not satisfied with his achievements, he determinedly went to Dunhuang to explore Chinese painting history. Staying there for two years and seven months, he copied over 270 mural paintings, most of which are now preserved in The Sichuan Provincial Museum. Sixty of his copies of frescoes are now exhibited as his representative work today so that the public could view the charm of Zhang Daqian and his work in those days.

        Situated in the west of Gansu province, the digging of caves centered on Mogao Grottoes began in AD 396, and the frescoes in them vary in about 1,000 years. Specially working on frescoes, Zhang Daqian found out the essence of painting in the dynasties of Bei Wei, Sui, and Tang, thus his style of figure painting drastically changed. Returning to the ancients to make innovations in his painting, he added glory to the fine arts development in China.

        In his art life of almost 70 years, Zhang Daqian used a great number of seals, the full collection of which is simply impossible. According to the albums of seals published, his seals must be over three hundred. The seals exhibited here are only some of those preserved in the Sichuan Provincial Museum that have never been put to book form. It is even said that Zhang had used about 3,000 seals all his life, the number of which puts him in the first place among Chinese painters in the twentieth century in using seals.

        Apart from his own effort in seal carving, he, more often than not, had his seals cut by about 40 other seal cutters. Of them Fang Jiekan, Chen Julai, and Dun Lifu cut most of his seals, and with them he had intimate relations. Their relations could be illustrated with the fact that, even in his late life, he would write to Fang Jiekan in the Chinese mainland from Taiwan requiring seals cut. And, in return for this, he would send Fang his paintings. The fine art of the three seal cutters is on show with the number of about twenty seals.

        The seal cutting by Zhang Daqian can be traced back to 1918 when he was only twenty, and the seals he cut were already of high quality. Later he cut seals for his brothers and friends, further improving his technique. The seals anonymous of the cutters, such as 璌a Qian Ju Shi(]hang Daqian, a lay Buddhistor D lay Buddhist in the world, 廍hu Ke(D Sichuan visitor, and ]hang Daqian,look like the works done by Zhang himself.

        The seals in this exhibition provide the public with the chance to view the fine art of a few renowned seal cutters including Zhang Daqian, and, at the same time, the connoisseurs with real artworks in future identification of Zhang DaqianY early paintings.

        Zhang Daqian, having traveled around most part of China, stayed several months in Macau in 1949 before going and living abroad. It could be said that Macau is the last stop he stayed in his motherland before going oversees and returning to Taiwan in his advanced age. The Macau citizens who are familiar with the history would cherish the experience.

        The Cultural Institute of the Macau Special Administrative Region (Macau SAR) has made endeavors in fostering the growth of local culture. It is now holding the exhibition of Zhang DaqianY sixty excellent copies of Dunhuang frescoes and forty seals, which were borrowed from the Sichuan Provincial Museum, owing to his remarkable contributions to modern Chinese art history and his special relations with Macau. Cooperated with the Macau Museum of Art under the provisional bureau of the City government, the exhibition is successfully launched in Macau and the public could enjoy the fine works of art. Born in 1899 and died in 1983, Zhang Daqian lived for eighty-five years, leaving a precious legacy of art to the later generations. The Chinese history of painting will certainly record his merit, particularly writing a chapter concerning his Dunhuang exploration for the essence of traditional Chinese painting.