In Brazil where he settled in 1953 or during his frequent visits to the Swiss Alps, he discovered landscapes that do not exist in China. He developed in the mid-1960s an entirely new pictorial style based on splashes of colors to express from memory this new sensory experience with a spontaneity of execution inspired by the Action Painting.
For these views, Zhang sometimes uses very large formats. On December 4 in Beijing, Poly Auction sells as lot 2030 an ink and colors on silk 173 x 344 cm on the theme of the Swiss snowy mountain.
This artwork realized in 1965 is one of the first of this new phase in the art of Zhang. The horizon reveals the mountain atmosphere with twin peaks licked by clouds but the foreground is a study of colors close to abstraction from where the drawing is absent.
In the next years, Zhang will go back to more figuration in a subtle blend of splash and line. An interpretation 176 x 264 cm of Lake Achensee made in 1968 in ink and colors on silk was sold for RMB 100M yuan including premium by China Guardian on May 17, 2010.
SOLD for RMB 165M including premium