Hudson Shaoxia Zhang

1953

Born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.

1968

At the age of 15, as part of China’s “sent-down youth” movement during the Cultural Revolution, Zhang was assigned to work in the rural areas around Zhenjiang and Taixing, Jiangsu Province.

1972-1974

Admitted to the Department of Fine Arts at Nanjing Normal University as a student from the first cohort of “worker-peasant-soldier” entrants during the Cultural Revolution. After graduation, he was sent to teach at Taixing High School in Jiangsu.

1979-1981

Earned a master’s degree in art history at Nanjing University of the Arts, studying under the renowned art historian Liu Ruli. During this period, Zhang authored a comprehensive, nearly million-word series of six textbooks on the history of foreign art and crafts—then the largest of its kind in China—and published a dozen scholarly articles.

1982-1986

In 1982, Zhang joined the faculty of Nanjing University of the Arts, where he played a key role in establishing the study of global decorative arts in China. Within two years, he was promoted to associate professor at just 31, becoming the youngest Chinese academic to hold that title at the time. In 1986, he and Li Xiaoshan co-authored A History of Modern Chinese Painting, published by Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House. The book created a sensation upon release and became a seminal text during the ’85 New Wave period of Chinese art. It is still regarded as a pioneering work in the field.

1986-1990

Contracted by Beijing People’s Fine Arts Publishing House, he co-authored the three-volume The Development of Western Art with his mentor, Professor Liu Ruli, in 1987. The following year, at the age of 35, Zhang was appointed Founding Dean of the College of Art at Hainan University, located in the newly established Hainan Special Economic Zone. Between 1986 and 1990, his trilogy—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—was published by Shaanxi People’s Fine Arts Publishing House. These volumes, China’s first systematic textbooks on the history of decorative arts, were widely recognized as foundational.

1991

Three years after assuming his deanship at Hainan University, Zhang entered the business world, embracing China’s Reform and Opening-up. Over the last three decades, despite the demands of commerce, he has remained steadfastly committed to his academic and artistic pursuits.

1998-2011

Edited and authored A Treasury of World Painting Masterpieces, a 20-volume series comprising over 3,000 images and several hundred thousand words, published in 1998 by Shanghai People’s Fine Arts Publishing House. The project was designated a national key publication during China’s Ninth Five-Year Plan and received the only Gold Medal awarded to an art publication in that cycle. In 2000, Zhang edited The Encyclopedia of World Fine Arts (CD-ROM edition), written by Professor Zuo Zhuangwei and published by Shanghai People’s Fine Arts Publishing House. The project includes nearly 10,000 images of Western painting, sculpture, architecture, and decorative arts. In 2009, Zhang published A History of World Arts and Crafts, which was followed in 2011 by the two-volume The Development of European Art. Both works were produced by the Shanghai Paintings and Calligraphy Publishing House.

2012

Established a painting studio in Haikou, Hainan, followed soon after by another in Manhattan, New York. A devoted golfer for more than three decades, Zhang has created over 1,000 paintings centered on golf course landscapes. Within this genre, his sustained commitment and the scale of his output remain unparalleled in the contemporary art world.

2023

The Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts (AMNUA) presented Zhang’s first major retrospective, featuring more than 40 golf course landscape paintings, along with his manuscripts and personal golf diaries covering three decades.

2024

Zhang’s solo exhibition “Golf Landscapes” toured four European institutions: the University of London, the Bellini Museum (Florence), Sorbonne University (Paris), and the University of Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve). The exhibitions were covered by over a hundred media outlets, including Golf News, Golf Monthly, and China Daily. His first monograph, Golf Course Landscapes: Oil Paintings Collection by Hudson Shaoxia Zhang, was published in the same year, further consolidating his international recognition and establishing him as a leading contemporary painter of golf landscapes. Zhang’s works are held in the permanent collections of the Bellini Museum and AMNUA, as well as in private collections worldwide.