At 10 o’clock yerterday morning, a geezer named as Zhang Ting left us forever in a hospital of Peking at a age of 94. Maybe you didn’t know his name before if you are not a devotee of painting. He was a great artist with huge influence on art circles. He had a lot of titles, such as, famous artist, educator, professor of Tsinghua University, former Dean of Central Academy of Arts and Design, etc. For us, these brilliant titles are not important. The most important contributions of him are his designs of Chinese national emblem and the image of Nezha, an popular immortal of Chinese Buddhaism. His designs have been influencing our lives silently. We should remember him!

　　ZhangTing was born in 1917 in Heishan region of Liaoning province. In 1932, he was admitted to BeiPing Art School to learn traditional chinese painting. He head to Yan An in 1938 and served as a lecturer in LuXun Art Academy. In 1949, he took part in the design of the emblem and commemorative  stamps of National Political consultative Conference. In the same year, he threw himself into the design of National Emblem with other designers of the Central commission of National Emblem design. The image of Tian Anmen in the middle of the emblem was initiated by Zhang Ting and was accepted by Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin(rather beautiful). Zhang Ting also led the design of the serial murals in Capital International Airport and Peking subway stations. Nezha and King Dragon, Great Wall on Yan mountain, two mural masterpieces of him caused sensations at home and abroard.

　　The most popular artwork of Zhang Ting is Nezha Fights the Dragon King, the first colorful wide screen cartoon of new China. In 1978, Zhang Ting served as the General Designer of the film. At that time, I was only four years old. This amination has unique charatoristics in its Chinese style background pictures and its vivid people images. The whole film is teemed with Chinese culture elements. Nezha Fights the Dragon King has a deep and broad influence on the style of Chinese Amination and Children’s Readings.

     There is one more thing should be mentioned here. Zhang Ting was acquainted with Picasso. When Zhang Ting studied in Beiping, he bumped into several books of Picasso and he was fascinated with the boundless imagination and simple expression of Picasso. Their first meeting happened in 1956 when Zhang Ting  was assigned to ancor the desgn of a Chinese pavilion of Paris International Art Exhibition.He went to drop at Picasso in the southern of Frence during this period. The house of Picasso was a seaside villa. When Zhang arrived at his home, Picasso went downstairrs with vest and shorts after a nap to welcome him. Zhang Ting had thought Picasso’s home must be luxrrious for he had been the richest painter in then world. One piece of Picasso’s work could sell tens of thousands US bucks. But out of his expectation, in his workshop, except for the paintings, nearly all his furnatures were old. The walls were covered with dust and springs pierced through a worn-out sofa. Picasso didn’t feel uncomfortable for his smiple workshop. Picasso was relatively short in Europe persons, but when Zhang Ting standing beside him, they were of the same height.

      ZhangTing sent Picasso a collection of Qi Baishi,which influenced Picasso's painting style  in his latter paintings.Latterly,picasso told Zhang Daqian,another famous painter of China：I don’t understand why Chinese rush to Paris to learn art. In fact, the real art is in the east.“

       As to us, most of us can’t understand the paintings of Picasso. Even some people insist that Picasso’s works should be trown into toilet. The answer of ZhangTing was: When roaming in a grove in the morning, you can hear all kinds of chirps of birds. Even though you don’t know the meaning of the birds, the chirps are still agreeable. If we say painting is a kind of music without sound, then the paintings of Picasso contain the sighs of Spain tramps.the sounds of sea wave of south Frence,the whinnying horses of WWII.the deafening shells of artillery,the spring flutes after the liberation of Paris,the singing Spain tambourines…