Hans van Dijk | Dai Hanzhi - A Life with Art in China 1986 - 2002

Hans van Dijk: A Life with Art in China is dedicated to the life and work of Hans van Dijk (b. the Netherlands, 1946) and outlines his seminal role in Chinese contemporary art. Van Dijk — or Dai Hanzhi, as he was called by his Chinese friends — was both a witness and a catalyst in the develop-ment of Chinese contemporary art. He was active as a curator, art historian, and gallerist in China from the late 1980s until his death in 2002.

This richly illustrated publication documents the recent history of Chinese contemporary art through the lens of van Dijk’s extraordinary life and work. The book includes never-before-published correspondences between him and artists such as Ding Yi and Huang Yong Ping, over twenty interviews with artists close to van Dijk including Geng Jianyi, Wang Xingwei, and Zhang Peili, historical photo¬graphs, as well as a full-length scholarly essay about the history of Chinese modern and contemporary art by van Dijk.