Zhang Wei (painter)

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Zhang Wei (張偉), born in 1952 in Beijing, is a Chinese painter who helped start abstract art in postmodern China. He is widely seen as a founder of the No Name Group, a self-organized circle of young painters, and he continues to create abstract work today.

He grew up in a wealthy Beijing family in a traditional courtyard home. During the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards destroyed the courtyard, his grandmother was killed, and his father died in prison. In 1968 he was sent to work as an “educated youth” in Shanxi. He returned to Beijing for treatment in 1971 and began teaching himself how to paint.

Back in Beijing, he met artists such as Ma Kelu, Zheng Ziyan, Shi Xixi, and others in 1973. They formed the Yu Yuan Tan School of Painting and painted outdoors in parks around the city. In December 1974 they held a small, underground exhibition at Zhang Wei’s house, laying the groundwork for the No Name Group. In the 1970s he mostly painted landscapes and still lifes.

In the early 1980s he began to explore abstract painting. In 1986 he helped organize the Graffiti Exhibition, which was shut down by the police. This disappointment contributed to many artists leaving the country.

Zhang Wei then moved to the United States to participate in Avant-Garde Chinese Art. New York became his home for about sixteen years. He worked with the Carolyn Hill Gallery and later Z Gallery, creating abstract works inspired by the streets of Manhattan. The collaboration with those galleries ended in 1992. He lived in the West Village, taking on various jobs while continuing his art. He also joined protests for artists’ rights, including a 1997 demonstration for freedom of speech at the Metropolitan Museum. In 2003 the Supreme Court recognized that their art was protected speech.

He returned to Beijing in 2005 and kept painting in an abstract mode, often combining found objects with his paintings in an assemblage style. His first full retrospective of abstract works from 1979 to 2012 appeared in 2012 at Boers-Li Gallery in Beijing, helping to renew interest in early Chinese contemporary art.

Since then he has participated in group exhibitions in Beijing, Berlin, and New York, including shows at Boers-Li Gallery and Galerie Max Hetzler. His work is known for bold, energetic brushwork and bright colors, influenced by his experience with Peking opera, Daoist ideas, and Chinese calligraphy.

Zhang Wei’s art has been shown worldwide in major exhibitions. In 2016 Hong Kong’s M+ Museum acquired four of his early works from collector Uli Sigg. His works have also appeared in exhibitions such as M+ Sigg Collection: Four Decades of Chinese Contemporary Art (2016); Light Before Dawn: Unofficial Chinese Art 1974–1985 (2013); and Blooming in the Shadows: Unofficial Chinese Art, 1974–1985 (2011). The Art Institute of Chicago bought his 1984 oil on linen painting AC10 in 2005.