| Zhang Daqian enjoyed a great reputation in artistic world at home and abroad because of his unsurpassed artistic achievements and astonishingly legendary life. He is an all-rounder in painting, calligraphy, seal cutting and poetry, of which he is most proficient in painting and is capable of painting landscapes, figures, flowers and birds. Among these themes, the landscape painting is his most distinguished achievement, which helped him became a man named with "Zhang Daqian in the South and Pu Xinshe in the North","Shi Tao Expert." In 1919 he started his learning course in Shanghai, and began his study on landscape painting of ancient famous painters. In his early learning period, he learned from Shi Tao, Ba Da, Mei Qing, Shi Xi, Cheng Sui, and so on. Among these remarkable painters, he merely and particularly put much effort on the study of Shi Tao whom he mastered deeply. He grasped and absorbed tradition essence when he was studying and imitating paintings of predecessors, and during this period he also led a life as a traveler and created a lot of paintings. At the beginning of 1940s, he brought his students to learn copying frescoes in Dunhuang, which pioneered the trend of learning frescoes, and his art career also developed by leaps and bounds at this time. He moved overseas after 1949, and later he lived in Argentina, Brazil and United States and finally settled in Taipei in his old age.It has been discovered that Zhang Daqian's landscape creation was deeply affected by Shi Tao. Not only his methods in handwriting, ink using, and color are extremely similar to that of Shi Tao, but also the verve and connotation of the paintings of Shi Tao are exactly mastered in his art works since his extraordinary perception abilities. The artistic road of Zhang Daqian could be summarized as three stages——learning from predecessors, learning from nature, and bringing out innovation. Because he had a deep research on Shi Tao's methods, just as he said "I was afraid that I could not be a good artist as Shi Tao in my early years, but now I worried that I could not break his limit". The influence of Shi Tao went through the whole landscape creation course of Zhang Daqian, and his composition, shape, pen and ink, etc. are kept a Shi Tao "taste" in his imitations in early years, painting from nature in middle age, and splash-ink and spilled color art work in his old age.However, Zhang Daqian never merely sticks to the standard of Shi Tao, but learn his thought and artistic conception, and then he even could turn Shi Tao's methods into his own things by which he created the splash-ink and spilled color painting style. Zhang Daqian's artistic career was completely influenced by Shi Tao, and this influence was deepened and expanded with constant progress on his artistic road. It showed in different ways in his art, which could be concluded as four processes: learning widely from others'strong points but focusing on only one style; learning from one's thinking and conception, then transforming it into his own things; travelling around as a monk and painting from nature; carrying on the traditions and making breakthroughs and innovation. It is worth us paying attention on his painting style of "splash-ink and spilled color", the most creative achievement in his artistic life, which is the peak of his career; and it is also an inevitable result of "learning from predecessors, learning from nature, and making innovation". However, if we analyze and research his splash-ink and spilled color painting style, we could find out he was inspired by Painting Quotations from Shi Tao which is the best answer to "A Painting" theory of Shi Tao.All things and phenomena in the world are in cause and effect, there is no result without reason and vise versa. Why Zhang Daqian only chose Shi Tao among various painters and studied him deeply, and why Shi Tao could produce a far-reaching influence on Zhang Daqian's painting career, these could not be parted from Zhang Daqian's painting talents, temperament and personality, culture and virtues, and life experiences; and more than that, a good family cultivation, guidance from a senior teacher, cultural trend of art in current society, and artistic market all these factors posted important roles in his career.Zhang Daqian has dedicated his whole life to the fading away 20th century It is his unusual gifts, tireless work, and profound culture and accomplishment that created his success. He influenced descendants of art circle with educational ideas, such as study and practice having the same importance, hard work being more crucial than destiny, weighing both tradition and painting from the nature,and bringing out innovation on the basis of learning from predecessors. He made a best combination of carrying on the tradition and initiating splash-ink and spilled color painting style which set up an example for descendants learning Chinese painting. |
PDF Full Text Request