Professor Hudson Shaoxia Zhang

Visual Artist · Art Historian · Educator

1953

Born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.

1972

Zhang was selected as one of the earliest “worker-peasant-soldier” students and entered the Fine Arts Department at Nanjing Normal University. After graduating in 1974, he began teaching at Taixing Middle School.

1979

Zhang became one of China’s first postgraduate students in Art History, studying under the renowned scholar Professor Liu Ruli at the Nanjing University of the Arts. During his graduate years, he authored a monumental, million-word textbook on the history of global art history and published more than ten scholarly articles—unprecedented achievements at the time.

1982

Zhang joined the university’s faculty and began shaping the field of decorative arts history in China. His groundbreaking works, A Brief History of European Arts and Crafts, A History of African and American Arts and Crafts, and A History of Asian Arts and Crafts, published by Shaanxi People’s Fine Arts Publishing House, became foundational texts—the first of their kind in Chinese art education.

1986

His co-authored book A History of Modern Chinese Painting (with Li Xiaoshan) became a landmark publication of the ‘85 New Wave, and is still widely regarded as a defining work in the field. A year later, he co-authored the comprehensive three-volume History of Western Art Development with Professor Liu Ruli, published by the People’s Fine Arts Publishing House in Beijing.

1988

Zhang had been promoted to Associate Professor—then the youngest at Nanjing University of the Arts. That same year, he moved to the newly established Hainan Special Economic Zone, where he became the founding dean of the School of Arts at Hainan University.

1991

Zhang transitioned from academia into business, launching a new chapter that has lasted more than three decades. Even during his busiest years in business, he remained deeply committed to art and scholarship. 

1997

He edited and contributed to the 20-volume World Painting Treasures, featuring over 3,000 images and hundreds of thousands of words. Published by Shanghai People’s Fine Arts Publishing House, the series was named a key cultural project during China’s Ninth Five-Year Plan and received the only gold medal for art books that year.

The following year, Zhang co-edited The Encyclopedia of World Art (CD-ROM edition), in collaboration with Professor Zuo Zhuangwei. The project brought together nearly 10,000 examples of Western painting, sculpture, architecture, and design.

2009

Zhang published A History of World Arts and Crafts, followed by the two-volume A History of European Art in 2011.

Despite his scholarly achievements and business responsibilities, Zhang never stopped painting. A passionate golfer for more than 30 years, he began capturing the spirit of golf courses around the world through oil on canvas. To date, he has completed more than 1,000 golf landscape paintings—each reflecting his personal experience of the game and a painter’s sensitivity to space, light, and rhythm. His practice stands alone in the global art world for its devotion to this singular subject.

2023

Zhang’s first major retrospective was held at the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts (AMNUA), presenting over 40 golf course landscape paintings from across the globe. The exhibition also featured his manuscripts and decades of personal golf diaries, offering an intimate look into the artistic and emotional journey behind his work.

2024

Zhang’s solo exhibition Golf Landscapes toured four prestigious European institutions: the University of London (UK), the Bellini Museum (Florence), the Sorbonne University (Paris), and the Aula Magna Art Center at the University of Leuven (Belgium). The academically recognized exhibitions drew attention from both the international art and golf communities, garnering coverage in over 100 media outlets—including Golf News, Golf Monthly, and China Daily.

His works are now part of the permanent collections at the Bellini Museum and AMNUA, as well as numerous significant private collections worldwide.