Zhang Dannong was born in Guangdong, China and moved to Singapore in 1940. Before his relocation, Zhang trained in the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts and was formerly a professor of Fine Arts at Sun Yat-Sen University. A well-rounded artist proficient in Chinese ink painting, calligraphy and seal carving, Zhang is reputed for his paintings of horses and tigers. As one of Singapore’s pioneer artists, Zhang is also known as one of the first to popularise the art of seal carving in the region and is said to have produced more than three thousand engraved seals in his lifetime.
The practice of seal carving in China stems from a history dating back over three thousand years ago and arguably originated from the Shang Dynasty. While the seal has a primarily functional purpose—a tool utilised to imprint the owner’s signature—craftsmen and artisans began taking an interest in the techniques in the making of seals and presentation of their script. In this artwork, Zhang featured several characters imprinted by various seals. On the left side of the paper, the artist compared the art of seal making to poetry.
