Zhang Wei (b. 1952)

Hugely important to the development of avant-garde art in China, Zhang Wei is among the first exponents of abstract art after the Cultural Revolution. In 1973, Zhang joined the Beijing-based Wuming (No Name) Painting Collective, an artist group that rebelled against restrictions on creative expression imposed by Mao’s Communist regime. Zhang left the group in 1979 and began to look to the work of artists like Jackson Pollock and Robert Rauschenberg. This was a turning point in his practice; Zhang pivoted from landscapes and still lifes to experimentation with abstraction, combining Eastern and Western ideas. The striking energy of Zhang’s broad, gestural brushstrokes relates both to action painting and the Chinese qi painting tradition, whereby an artist conveys the “life force” (the translation of qi) of the subject. Zhang’s work is held in the public collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the M+ Sigg Collection in Hong Kong. He continues to live and work in Beijing, where he remains an influential figure in the contemporary Chinese art scene.