Mural duty

When Zhang left the Chinese mainland in 1949, he brought many of the reproductions with him. As he traveled around the world, moving from one city to another before his death in 1983, these works found their way into the hands of private collectors and many public museums.

The remainder kept by his family later entered the collection of Sichuan Museum in Chengdu. A selection of these reproductions are currently on display at a major exhibition about Zhang's art at the National Museum of China.

This will be the first chance for Beijing audiences to gain a comprehensive overview of Zhang's reproduction oeuvre, which cover almost every subject seen in Dunhuang's murals. And through his eyes, it's easy to become immersed in the enduring charm of Dunhuang's cultural legacy.

Also on show in Beijing are many of Zhang's landscapes and figure paintings, and his collections of paintings ranging from works by ancient painters to contemporary artists.

Zhang had originally planned to stay in Dunhuang for three months. He came up with the idea in the 1930s when he heard friends in Chengdu talk about the murals at the Dunhuang grottoes.