High Life

HIGH LIFE #11 Aug 2017 33 The exhibition titled “The Art of Zhang Daqian” features 100 masterpieces from the artist’s early and prime years collected by the Sichuan Museum, including his replicas of Dunhuang murals, landscape paintings, portraits, line drawings, letters and seals. The majority of the exhibited works were executed during the time before and after his stay in Dunhuang. The meticulous copies of murals are evidence that he held traditional culture in high esteem. They are deemed treasures that his descendants cannot pass to people from outside, apart from those donated to the museum. Chan Kai Chon, Director of the Macao Museum, has also done some indepth research about the artist. He tells High Life that Zhang, whose ancestral hometown is Panyu in Guangdong, regularly traveled to Macau and even created a few pieces here, one of which is now in the possession of Macao Museum.