Liu Dan was born in 1953 in one of China's ancient capitals, Nanjing. The school education he received in the then recently established People's Republic of China was based on Western methods, while at home his grandfather taught him the traditional art of calligraphy.
In the early 1980s he moved to America, returning to Beijing in 2005, and so his whole life has been one of familiarity with both Asia and the West. This experience is present, though not necessarily emphasised, in his work, and a focus of the current exhibition is his consideration of the artists of the Italian Renaissance. It is particularly fitting that these should be shown in the Ashmolean, which houses one of the world's finest collections of Old Master drawings, and a selection of Italian metalpoint drawings from the collection is included in the exhibition.
Previously unpublished material; new essay on the life and work of Liu Dan. Beautifully bound in cloth with embossed artist signature.
