Zhang Dali (Chinese, born 1963) studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Beijing. He continues to live and practice in that city, making work that centers on the difficulty of being an artist in Communist China. In his ongoing project A Second History (begun eight years ago), Zhang acts as an archivist of sorts, locating images in Chinese archives [books, periodicals, and other publications and print media], and researching their history. His work uncovers the role of photographs in state propaganda during the regime of Mao Tse-tung (1949–76), documenting the retouching, coloring, and other changes—such as the removal or addition of people and pictorial elements—made to photographs by state censors. Zhang is interested both in the political ramifications of these alterations and the delicate artistry the censors practiced in their adjustments of the historical documents.
