Remembering a pioneering designer

A New Year painting by Zhang. [Photo provided to China Daily]

An exhibition to commemorate the centenary of Zhang's birth is now on at the Tsinghua University Art Museum.

It reviews his role as a designer and his innovations in ink-brush painting.

Zhang is hailed as the "prime visual designer of New China" because he undertook several pivotal commissions that marked the birth of the People's Republic of China in 1949, such as the design of national emblem.

His proposal that the emblem should feature the Tian'anmen Gate Tower was accepted, although some said that the tower, which is part of the Forbidden City, symbolized feudalism.

His other jobs included decorating the room for the first session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the design of stamps that commemorated the new republic's inauguration held at Tian'anmen Square.