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Lot Essay
In 1954, Zhang moved his family to Brazil, creating his Eden known as the Garden of Eight Virtues. In this garden was the Lake of Five Pavilions, which Zhang often used as inspiration for his compositions. This present piece was created at the Lake of Five Pavilions in 1967, in preparation for his exhibition in Hong Kong, and eventually acted as the cover illustration for its exhibition catalogue.
Published in 1961, Zhang's essay "On the Art of Painting" cited the importance of elegance and an open mind. This present piece encapsulates both Zhang's aesthetic beliefs and his new representation of landscape through splashed-ink. Towards the end of 50's Zhang Daqian embarked his splashed-ink style of painting. His meeting with Pablo Picasso reaffirmed this innovative development, with academics calling this time as the pinnacle of his artistic career (between 1965 and 1969). Fused with mysterious hues of blue and green, the painting embodies lodgings amidst mountain valleys and mist.
Zhang's unique use of colour originated from his time at Dunhuang. His unique combination of minerals resulted in captivating shades of malachite-green and azurite blue. He applies the bonless (mogu) method with his splashed-ink technique, and fashions a lone house at the peak of an entrancing mountain with fluid brushstrokes. The black stillness of the open mountain view illuminated by streaks of iridescence in the sky is rendered in splashed-ink, a method often believed as a vehicle Zhang employed to express his vision of paradise, in which representation details were omitted, allowing Zhang's own psychic presence and physical energy create "order from chaos", an idea Shitao expressed centuries earlier.
Published in 1961, Zhang's essay "On the Art of Painting" cited the importance of elegance and an open mind. This present piece encapsulates both Zhang's aesthetic beliefs and his new representation of landscape through splashed-ink. Towards the end of 50's Zhang Daqian embarked his splashed-ink style of painting. His meeting with Pablo Picasso reaffirmed this innovative development, with academics calling this time as the pinnacle of his artistic career (between 1965 and 1969). Fused with mysterious hues of blue and green, the painting embodies lodgings amidst mountain valleys and mist.
Zhang's unique use of colour originated from his time at Dunhuang. His unique combination of minerals resulted in captivating shades of malachite-green and azurite blue. He applies the bonless (mogu) method with his splashed-ink technique, and fashions a lone house at the peak of an entrancing mountain with fluid brushstrokes. The black stillness of the open mountain view illuminated by streaks of iridescence in the sky is rendered in splashed-ink, a method often believed as a vehicle Zhang employed to express his vision of paradise, in which representation details were omitted, allowing Zhang's own psychic presence and physical energy create "order from chaos", an idea Shitao expressed centuries earlier.