Arnold Chang is a Chinese American artist, curator, and art historian. He specializes in Chinese literati-style landscape paintings. He was the founder of the Chinese painting department at Sotheby's.
Background and Early career
Chang was born in New York City. The youngest of three brothers, Chang says he knew he wanted to become a painter from the age of nine when he first saw paintings by the great twentieth-century Chinese painterZhang Daqian. His father arranged for him to begin painting and calligraphy lessons with a local painter from Shanghai, Wang Jiyuan. Chang was particularly fascinated by Chinese calligraphy and began to study Chinese language. Majoring in East Asian Studies and Chinese language in college, Chang was able to spend time in Taiwan, where he studied traditional landscape painting under Guo Yanqiao. After college, Chang went on to graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied under art historian James Cahill. It was through Cahill that Chang met the eminent Chinese painter and art collector C.C. Wang. Chang followed Wang to New York, where he studied both painting and connoisseurship. In New York, Chang was hired by Sotheby's to help with a Chinese art auction, and afterward was immediately hired to head a brand new Chinese painting department at the auction house. Chang worked at Sotheby's from 1978 to 1993, at the same time continuing to paint and study under C.C. Wang. After leaving Sotheby's, Chang worked as Chinese painting specialist at Kaikodo in New York City from 1996 to 2006. This new job allowed him more time in the studio to focus on his own art.
Paintings
Arnold Chang paints in the traditional literati style of ink landscapes and his paintings are known for the commitment to Chinese art conventions, with special attention to brushwork. Chang identifies with the literati way of life, with its focus on self-expression and painting as a means of self-cultivation. When asked what he hopes to achieve in his art, Chang explained: Bridge to Heaven is probably his best-known painting.
Selected Exhibitions
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth-Century China, February – May 1998.
