Chang Da-chien (1899-1983), original name Chang Zheng-quan, was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. He was born into a family of artists in Sichuan, China. In his age of eighteen, he studied painting and textile dyeing techniques in Kyoto, Japan with his elder brother. After returning, he suffered from lost his fiancée and once entered into religion, entitled Da-chien, which was called by public from that on. Before long, his brother asked his to secularize, he then established a successful career selling his paintings in Shanghai. During the days of Chinese Civil War, he moved to Hongkong, and in the following years he lived in Argentina, St.Paul of Brazil, and then to Carmel, California, before finally settling in Taipei, Taiwan.

Chang is very proficient in poetry, handwriting, painting, as well stone carving and has a unique understand in appreciations over the ancient Chinese calligraphy and painting. In particular, he created a light-color ink splashed landscape genre, and promoted the development of modern Chinese art. Plenty of his paintings, albums, collections and numerous shows draw a deeply far-reaching impact at the international level. One of his works “Begonia” was selected by the New York International Society of Arts as the Gold Award, also he won the title of the world’s greatest artist.

Chang’s output spanned a huge range, from archaising works based on the early masters of Chinese painting to the innovations of his late works which connect with the language of Western abstract art. His painting style also varied throughout his life. 30-year-old former style could be described as “fresh and elegant”, 50-year-old into the “magnificent and of majesty”, after the age of 60 it was “abstruse and solemn”, while in his 80s finally became “simple and light”. However, his virtuosity within the medium of Chinese ink and color never reduced throughout the varieties.

A meeting between Chang and Picasso in 1956 was viewed as a summit meeting between the preeminent masters of Eastern and Western art. Picasso showed Chang some drawings done in “Chinese” style, but Chang remarked that they were not executed with the right tools and gave Picasso a set of Chinese brushes. Picasso then noticed Spanish brushes have more length and girth.