At 75 years of age, Chang Ta-chien is one of the world's great painters and possibly China's best. He is a traditionalist, yet an eclectic of styles from the rang to the Ch'ing. Taught by his painter mother, he has wield ed the brush since childhood. In the early 1940s he spent nearly three years at the newly discovered Tunhuang caves copying 220 of the magnificent murals. When his eyesight began to fail, he turned to the splashed ink technique. The painting on this page shows he need not take a back seat to Sung masters.
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Paintings of Han have not survived. But Chang Ta-chien believes Chinese painting reached its greatest glory in that dynasty (206 B.C.-221 A.D.). He has traveled widely, not only in China but throughout the world, and all he has seen is reflected in his work. These landscapes are in classical style. That above includes an old man playing the lute under a pine of longevity.
(File photo).
Human figures dominate the cave art at Tunhuang. Chang's years of work there gave him a mastery un surpassed in modern times, as can be seen in the T'ang dynasty horseman above. The lotus has been his favorite subject in recent years. An example of his splashed ink treatment is seen at right. He lives in Brazil but has made several trips to Taiwan.