Page 34 - Christie's Hong Kong May 30, 2017 Zhang Daqian

Fig. 1
圖一

FIG. 1 MEI YUN TANG COLLECTION
1970 in Camel, California, USA
Left to right: Madame Hsu Wen-po, Mei Yun Tang Collection is one of the most important collections of Zhang Daqian’s
Professor Chang Dai-chien, Mr. Kao paintings. The founding of the collection by the children of Kao Ling-mei (1913-
Ling-mei and Madame Jan Yun-bor. 1993) and Madame Jan Yun-Bor (1916-1995) is to commemorate the fifty years of
friendship between the two and the artist. Kao worked in the photography industry
圖一 in Nanjing in the 1930’s and had taken photographs of Zhang’s paintings. In 1944,
一九七〇年於美國加州克密爾合照 Kao and his family travelled through Southwest China to escape the invading Japanese
左至右：徐雯波夫人、張大千居士、 forces, from Kunming to Chongqing and Chengdu in Sichuan. Zhang Daqian, on
高嶺梅先生及詹雲白夫人。 the other hand, recently returned to Chengdu after staying in Dunhuang for over two
years meticulously copying the wall paintings in the caves. In January, copies of the
Dunhuang murals were exhibited in Chengdu. Kao and his wife were interested in art
and met Zhang Daqian again.Their friendship grew rapidly (Fig. 1).

In 1948, Kao Ling-mei brought his family to Taiwan, and helped Zhang Daqian
organised his first exhibition in Taiwan. Afterwards, the Kao family resettled in Hong
Kong. In the 1950s and 1960s, each time Zhang Daqian visited Hong Kong, Kao
would host him and he sometimes stayed at Kao’s home. Kao had organised numerous
exhibitions for Zhang Daqian in Hong Kong and in Taipei, including the exhibition
presented to celebrate Zhang Daqian’s sixtieth birthday in 1958, and Hong Kong’s
City Hall Art Gallery’s inaugurate exhibition in 1962. Many of these paintings in the
exhibitions were on loan from the Mei Yun Tang Collection. In the next three years,
Kao organized exhibitions of paintings in the collection in Singapore, Malaysia and
Thailand to further promoted Zhang’s work throughout Southeast Asia. Furthermore,
Kao also compiled numerous catalogues, one most notable is Chinese Painting: With
the Original Paintings and Discourses on Chinese Art By Professor Chang Dai-chien in 1961,
which has been considered a valuable reference for understanding Chinese painting as
well as Zhang Daqian’s works.

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