Beijing-Australian calligrapher and visual artist, Zhang Dawo’s work reflects experiences during the cultural revolution and early days of New China. His artistic nature is deeply rooted in the ancient culture of Jin-Shi (artistic etching and engraving of symbols and writing on metal and stone – 4,000 BC), at the same time he has a determined ambition of pushing the frontier of contemporary art.
For the first 40 years of his life he immersed himself in traditional forms. Since 1982, he has overcome the classical barrier, by moving from the two dimensional into the three dimensional, a visual revolution made largely possible by the rearrangement of the spatial construction and the use of different tones of ink on special calligraphic paper.
After 1990 Dawo’s work crossed the boundary of modern calligraphy into modern art pushing its frontier with the ink medium. Dawo’s work conveys not only a sense of ‘breaking free’ from convention but it appears to be ‘flying off’ the paper, to overwhelm the viewer with abstraction, through sheer scale. Like a crescendo in music – a burst of emotion in layers of density of ink, executed in one stroke for his viewers to temporarily lose themselves.
Dawo is in the collection of British Museum, Beijing Museum and many private and corporate companies.
East & West Art
21 March to 30 April, 2013
Melbourne
Zhang Dawo, Propulsion Series 108 (detail), 1998, ink on paper, 264 x 58cm
