Zhang Jielong – Chinese Painter

About the Artist

Zhang Jielong is a Dunhuang artist devoted to the study and reproduction of the great murals of the Mogao Caves. Trained at the Dunhuang Academy and under gongbi master Ma Fudan, he recreates the flying apsaras and Buddhist wall paintings of the Silk Road in meticulous mineral colour — bringing a thousand years of Dunhuang art to contemporary walls.

Artist Introduction

Zhang Jielong (张杰龙), art name Yiran, was born in Dunhuang, the ancient oasis city of the Silk Road. Fascinated by art from childhood and nurtured by the Dunhuang tradition, he has devoted his career to the study of Dunhuang murals and the reproduction of mineral-colour wall paintings. He studied mural painting at the Fine Arts Research Institute of the Dunhuang Academy, learned meticulous gongbi and heavy colour under the Dunhuang painter Ma Fudan, and furthered his training in the Ministry of Culture’s advanced class on gongbi mineral-colour painting led by the celebrated artist Tang Xiuling. He is a member of the Gansu Provincial Artists Association and the Dunhuang Municipal Artists Association, Vice-President of the Dunhuang Zhongshan Painting and Calligraphy Academy, and a contracted artist of the Dunhuang Academy of Painting. In 2010 he was appointed full-time artist of the Dunhuang Academy of Painting. His major commissions include more than one hundred mural paintings for the Dunhuang Huarong Cultural Company, the large murals “Cave 25 of Yulin” and “Thousand-Armed, Thousand-Eyed Guanyin” for the Dunhuang Academy of Painting, a hundred-square-metre Dunhuang-themed wall painting for an international cultural company, and a “Thousand-Hand Guanyin” mural for the Zhangye Municipal Museum. His “Flying Apsaras” won second prize in the Gansu gongbi mural competition in 2015, and his works have been featured in major media including the Xinhua News Agency and Qinghai TV’s “Belt and Road” documentary.

Works Appreciation

Application Scenarios

Zhang Jielong’s Dunhuang murals and apsaras paintings bring exotic Silk Road splendour to hotels, restaurants, cultural venues and luxury residences, and are increasingly commissioned for themed interiors. His authentic Dunhuang Academy training gives collectors genuine fidelity to the original cave art.