Cottages in Misty Mountains

Zhang Daqian's splashed-ink technique was not only a new peak in his artistic career but also it set a milestone in the history of Chinese paintings. In the late 1950s, various reasons such as exposure to Western artistic movements like Abstract Expressionism, Action Painting and Colour Field Painting, damage to his eye-sight, coupled with a desire to appeal buyers in the West, Zhang began to experiment the splashed ink and colour technique, which gradually developed into his signature style during the period from 1964 to 1969.
Painted in 1965, Cottages in Misty Mountains exemplifies Zhang's genius for his reinterpretation of Chinese landscapes. Ink was first splattered on moistened paper with minimal interference to channel the flow - before the ink was completely dry, Zhang spilled azurite and malachite pigments over the painting surface, resulting in an abstract form of ink and colour. After studying carefully the effects of his works, Zhang then sketched a few rooftops and trees, thus creating a landscape of bird's-eye view with both abstract and concrete forms.