Asian Arts | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board

Picked up this nice Chinese brush painting. A friend of mine told me it was dated 1983 by an artist by the name of 夏大華 (Xia Da Hua), but I can not find any information on the artist.

Seems to be a skilled artist, but I'm wondering if there is a mistake in the translation in the name.

Help is appreciated.

Thanks.
Tim

your friend was close, but read the season as the artist's surname. The "xia" character ordinarily means "summer" and goes with the last character in the previous column, for "mid-summer" 1983. Dahua is the artist's given name; his/her surname is Zhang, which appears in the seal, so full name is 张大华

Thanks, Rat!

Checked Poly...signature is a perfect match...couldn't match the seal and subject matter is quite a bit different than those sold at auction. Still, I have no reason to believe the painting is a copy.

There were some articles on him in Chinese that I used Google to translate that mentioned he is part of what is called the 'Qi faction'.

Not sure if I understand fully, but does this mean he trained under Qi Baishi or simply paints in his style?

Best,
Tim

Paints in his style. If he had trained under Qi, his bio would mention it. The character translated as "faction" more idiomatically means "school" when applied to painters, though your picture suggests no connection to Qi Baishi to me.

Found his 'official' website (link below) which includes an English translation of his biography that states "Born in Beijing, Mr. Zhang Dahua was a disciple both of the modern Chinese painting master Qi Baishi, and also of Mr. Qi's successor, Mr. Lou Shibai."

From the articles online on this artist, I think your translation of 'faction' or school is correct since Qi Baishi died in 1957 and Dahua was born in 1959.

There is also mention that he is considered a 'National Treasure'. Does this give Dahua merit in the art world, or is this just a political award given out in relative frequency?

Apparently, one of his paintings was purchased for the Rockefeller collection, one was gifted to President Obama, mention of being displayed in Time Square (NY), and included in museums collections at the Library of Congress and the MET (if the website is factual).

There is also a chronology of his work as an artist, and interesting to note is that he lists his first exhibition as being in Yokahama Japan in 1989.

Since my painting pre-dates his first show, perhaps my painting is demonstrates a less refined method, but is still captures his use of white (no ink) to create a rather powerful image.

Thanks for your help.




URL Title :张大华 Zhang Dahua official website

I don't know what the National Treasure appellation means, but it's clear that he is approved by the Party for some reason. Not being familiar with his work I shouldn't throw more than my impressions around but as you've noticed, your picture is not in the same vein as works by Zhang readily available online. It may be early, or it may be an imitation.

Asian Arts | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board