Jiang Dahai

1949 Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

Introduction

Jiang Dahai is a prominent Chinese-French artist, whose work synthesises elements from Chinese and Western artistic traditions. Born in 1949 in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, China, he graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1986 with a master’s degree from the school’s oil painting department. That same year he moved to Paris and began studying at the École Nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He worked and lived solely in Paris until 2007, and now splits his time between Beijing and Paris. From 2007-2009 he was a visiting professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. During his earlier years in France, he was intrigued and inspired by cloud patterns, which became the central theme of his paintings. The works are a mixture of natural and abstracted forms in harmony with each other on a 2D surface. His forms tend to be minimalist but powerful in their simplicity. At the turn of the twentieth century, after many years of searching for an icon closer to his roots, he began to play on the texture of the paper, dryness and wetness of the brush so that they dissolve into a hazy mist and become “rhythmic, mysterious and abstract images”, not unlike Western abstract painters, such as Mark Rothko and Pierre Soulages, who played on geometric shapes, lines and dots.

Alisan Fine Arts began representing Jiang Dahai in 2005 and held a solo exhibition for him in 2006 as part of Le French May. The exhibition was organised as a response to two solo exhibitions that were held for the artist at the Shanghai Art Museum and the National Art Museum of China in Beijing during the Year of France in China from 2004-2005. in 2010 we included Jiang in ARTHK 10.

Jiang Dahai has participated in many international exhibitions, including at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris in 1990, Venice Biennale in 1999, the Today Art Museum in Beijing in 2009, Colorado University Art Museum in 2011. A retrospective of his paintings was held at the National Museum of History in Taipei in 2015. In October of 2016, the Musée Guimet in Paris held a solo exhibition for him. His works are in the collections of the Sophia Antipolis Foundation, Paris; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum.




BIOGRAPHY
1949    Born in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, China
1986    Master Degree for Painting, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
1986    Research student at l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France
Received French Artist Salon Award, France
1987    Winner of Biossy Salon Award, France
2004-05    Selected as one of the artists to represent “France-China Culture Year”
2007    Living in Beijing, China
2007-09    Professor of Oil Painting Department, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Present    Lives in Beijing and Paris

 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 
2018  
  • Beyond the Cloud: Jiang Dahai Solo Exhibition, Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2016  
  • Carte blanche to Jiang Dahai, Guimet Museum, Paris, France
2015  
  • Jiang Dahai Retrospective, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan
2014  
  • Beyond Clouds, Yishu 8, Beijing, China
2013  
  • Towards Atmospheric Abstraction, Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2009 
  • String Field– Solo Exhibition of Jiang Dahai, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
  • Vagues – Solo Exhibition of Jiang Dahai, Yishu 8, Beijing, China
2006  
 2004-05
  • Foundation of Sophia Antipolis, France
  • France-China Cultural Year, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai; National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
1998 
  • National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
  • Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
  • Art Fair, Shanghai, China
  • Chengpin Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
1997 
  • 1st Art Fair, Shanghai, China
1996 
  • Gallery of Epoque, Taipei, Taiwan
1994 
  • Asian Art Fair, Hong Kong
1992-93 
  • Gallery of Epoque, Taipei, Taiwan
1988 
  • La Cité des Arts, Paris, France

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 
2016 

2014 
  • West says east says: Chinese Contemporary Art Research Exhibition, He Museum, Wuhan, China
2013 
  • Infra-mince Painting Exhibition, Yuan Art Museum, Beijing, China
  • Across the Strait, Contemporary Painting Exhibition, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China;
  • National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
2011 
  • Tao of Nature, Chinese Abstract Art Exhibition, MOCA, Shanghai, China
  • Giving and Receiving, A Collaboration Exhibition of Contemporary Artists from China, CU Art Museum, Colorado, USA
2010 
2009 
  • Celebration of Abstract Art in 100 Years, PIFO Gallery, Beijing, China
2008 
  • Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany
2007 
  • Corresponding and Responding – For United Exhibition of Chinese-American Artists, Beijing Arton Colour Printing, Beijing, China
2004 
  • International Contemporary Art, National Museum of Seoul, Korea
2003  
  • Guangzhou Art Triennale, Guangzhou, China
  • Shenzhen International Biennale of Ink Painting, Shenzhen, China
2002 
  • Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu, China
2001 
  • 20th Century of Art in China, Beijing, China
  • 3rd Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, China
2000 
  • Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
1999 
  • Museum of Contemporary Art, Ralona, Italy
1994 
  • Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1989 
  • International Contemporary Art Exhibition, Toulouse, France
1988 
  • Modern Art of China, New York, USA
1984 
  • 6th National Exhibition of Fine Arts in China, Beijing, China
1982 
  • Works by Professors of Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Hong Kong
1980 
  • From the Same Generation, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China


SELECTED COLLECTIONS 
National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
Shanghai Art Museum, China
Foundation of Sophia Antipolis, France