New Documentary ‘Of Color And Ink’ Pieces Together The Life Of An Artist

Of Color and Ink tells the story of Chang Dai-chien, a Chinese artist commonly known as “The Picasso of China”. In this documentary, we learn about the artist’s life, and most notably, it fills in the gaps of his life that were not previously known.

All the hard work filling in the gaps has been accomplished by San Francisco-based filmmaker Zhang Weimin. Weimin had some comments on what inspired her to make this documentary:

Even Chinese people can tell you about what Van Gogh’s life experiences were, and what Picasso’s were, and Monet’s — but no one knew what had happened to Chang Dai-chien, even though he was also a global artist.

Weimin’s efforts to piece together Chang’s life took 12 years. She journeyed all over the globe to track down remaining clues, meeting with friends and relatives as well as art scholars. It has become a very personal project for her. It explores Chang’s life as well as his legacy in fascinating ways.

Of Color and Ink won the award for Best International Feature Documentary Film Award at the 47th Sao Paulo International Film Festival, as well as Best Feature Documentary Film Award at the China (Guangzhou) International Documentary Film Festival, and now it has been submitted to the Academy for Oscar consideration.