Abode of Illusion: The Life and Art of Chang Dai-chien (Zhang Daqian) (1899–1983)

Hinton and Gordon’s 1994 documentary assembles an impressive roster of artists, collectors, and scholars (including the late James Cahill, for whom BAMPFA’s Asian Art Study Center is named) to reflect on the work and legacy of one of China’s most prolific and fascinating twentieth-century painters, Chang Dai-chien (Zhang Daqian) (1899–1983). Known to have created approximately thirty thousand artworks under his own name, three of which are currently on view in Spiritual Mountains, and famed for his skillful forgeries of historical Chinese masterpieces, Chang (Zhang) represented a link to the painters whose work he emulated, as well as serving as an ambassador of Chinese painting to the West.