In 1989, the painter Huang Jiang started copying paintings and has since been considered the founder of Dafen's replica industry. In the early 1990s, a group of about twenty artists who trained at art academies took up residence under the leadership of businessman Huang Jiang. They produced dozens of replicas daily of
oil paintings by masters such as
Vincent van Gogh,
Salvador Dalí,
Leonardo da Vinci,
Rembrandt, and
Andy Warhol. In the 1990s, Huang sent a painting to
Walmart and received an order of 50,000 paintings, which he had to produce within fourteen days. After the
2008 financial crisis, Western demand declined and domestic buyers ordered
Chinese art copies, forcing a change in style. As of 2014, 7,000 artists were based in Dafen, living and working in the factories, copying paintings, and five million paintings were being exported to the United States and Europe per year. Some artists can finish up to 100 paintings in twelve hours. ==Replicas==