Object Details
Artist
Zhang Daqian
Date
20th century
Medium
Hanging scroll: ink and colors on paper
Dimensions
43 x 16 1/4 inches (109.2 x 41.3 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired through the Ernest I. White, Class of 1893, Endowment Fund
Object
Number
75.061
Zhang Daqian grew up in Nanjiang, Sichuan province. As a young man, he moved to Shanghai in 1919 and(…)
Zhang Daqian grew up in Nanjiang, Sichuan province. As a young man, he moved to Shanghai in 1919 and became an important member of emerging artistic circles there, and later in Beijing. After leaving China in 1949, he lived in India, Argentina, Brazil, the United States, and finally settled in Taiwan. His self-exile and disillusionment with China, was expressed frequently in his paintings.For centuries Chinese poets and painters asserted political protest through references to the Peach Blossom Spring, by Tao Qian (365-427). Zhang owned a painting of this subject by the Qing dynasty master Shi Tao that inspired his numerous paintings of the theme. The story involves a fisherman who stumbles upon a hidden cave within a grove of flowering peach trees. The deep cavern turns out to be the gateway to an idyllic world free from the tumult of the fisherman’s own time. But when the fisherman attempts to return to the utopia, it has vanished. (“Debating Art: Chinese Intellectuals at the Crossroads,” curated by Yuhua Ding, with assistance by Elizabeth Emrich, and presented at the Johnson Museum February 2-July 8, 2018)
