Chang Dai-chien, given name Quan, later changed to Yuan, was born on Oct. 5, 1899, in Neijiang City, Sichuan Province, China. He took the courtesy name Jiyuan and professional name Master Dai-chien. As a boy he studied gongbi brushwork and flower-and-bird painting with his mother, Zeng Youzhen, and elder sister, Zhang Qiongzhi, as well as figures and animals with his elder brother, Zhang Shanzi, giving him a firm foundation in traditional Chinese painting techniques. In 1917, Chang and his brother moved to Kyoto, Japan, where he studied painting and textile dyeing techniques. Two years later he returned to China, this time to Shanghai, where he was influenced by master calligraphers Zeng Xi and Li Ruiqing, with whom he also studied poetry, literature and painting. He immersed himself in the work of the “two Shis,” Ming Dynasty painters Shi Xi and Shi Tao, and late Ming/early Qing painter Bada Shanren. Concentrating on the work of these painters, he copied ancient masterpieces and extended his scope, mastering the styles and techniques of Ming and Qing dynasty literati painters. There were three main factors that contributed to the scope of his painting style: prodigious study, imitation of historical masterpieces and extensive travel, which opened Chang to different experiences and ideas.
After the 1930s he traveled the length and breadth of China, studying in places of natural beauty. This experience was to become the pool of inspiration from which he drew throughout his life.
In the pursuit of faithfully expressing the spirit of traditional Chinese painting, Chang assiduously absorbed new ideas and influences. In 1941 he went to the Buddhist grottoes in Dunhuang to study the ancient art found within, making copies of 276 pieces in the Mogao Caves, also known as the “Caves of the Thousand Buddhas.” He spent two years and seven months there, enabling him to explore drafting techniques from the finest examples of art from high antiquity in a journey that took him all the way back to the art of the Northern Wei, Tang and Song dynasties. Through this endeavor, he entered the creative territory of a professional painter.
Until this point, Chang had been liberal with his use of bold, intense colors set against subtle washes, but, profoundly affected by the majesty of the artwork in the Dunhuang caves, he now challenged himself to create monumental, complex pieces. His 1945 work Large Lotus Screen is an example of this influence.
After leaving Dunhuang, Chang spent many years traveling overseas, where he met Pablo Picasso in 1956. He exchanged ideas about painting with the famous artist, bringing him into contact with a different culture and a new kind of vision.
Inspired by the zeitgeist of that particular moment, Chang began to absorb ideas of Western abstractionism and applied them to traditional Chinese ink painting, successfully transforming it into a new style with modern interplay of splashes of color and ink, expanding the techniques of form and use of water. In later years he would combine this with cracks, dots and lines in his compositions, marrying East and West and moving freely between the real and the abstract. Consequently, Chang's work represents an important achievement in the meeting of Western and Eastern art, and therefore marks a cultural milestone, leading the painter Xu Beihong to call Chang a “once-in-500-years phenomenon” worthy of praise and study by those who came after him.
The National Museum of History had a very close working relationship with Chang Dai-chien in his later years, beginning in 1958, when the artist came to Taiwan for the opening of the museum’s first exhibition of his work, The Painting of Chang Dai-chien, which was hosted by the calligrapher Yu You-ren. After this, Chang and the museum worked together frequently. It became a major platform for publishing and exhibiting his work, including Splashed-Ink Landscape, Huangshan Creek and The Great Yangtze River.
In 1981, Chang responded to the museum's call for the creation of the monumental collaborative work Formosa Evergreen Scroll, initiating the proceedings by being the first artist to work on the piece. When his work Mt. Lu was completed and exhibited at the museum in 1983, it caused quite a sensation.
In the more than 60 years of their collaboration, the museum organized dozens of exhibitions of Chang's work, ranging from originals to retrospectives and commemorative exhibitions — the most of any single institution both during his life and after. The museum has also published over 30 titles of the artist's work, including eight volumes of The Paintings and Calligraphy of Chang Dai-chien, exhibition catalogs and research monographs, a body of publishing of which the museum is especially proud.
The museum currently has 227 works by Chang in its collection, predominantly from his time in Europe, beautifully demonstrating the evolution of his mature freehand style into the splashed ink and color paintings that emerged later in his career. NMH has designated the artist's birthday as Chang Dai-chien Artist's Day to commemorate the work of this world-class contemporary artist. To continue the legacy of the friendship between the two, the museum will continue to promote exhibitions of Chang's work and accumulate materials and research of his oeuvre.
