Professor
Hudson Shaoxia Zhang is a renowned art historian and artist in China.
Born in 1953
in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.
In 1968, at
the age of fifteen, he went to work in the rural areas in Zhenjiang and Taixing
in Jiangsu Province as an intellectual youth.
From 1972 to
1974, as one of the first worker-peasant-soldier students in the Cultural
Revolution period (1966-1976), he studied at the Fine Arts Department of
Nanjing Normal University.
After
graduation in 1974, he was assigned to teach at Taixing Middle School in
Jiangsu Province.
In 1979, as
one of the first postgraduate students of art history in China, he was enrolled
in the Department of Fine Arts of the Nanjing University of the Arts, where he was
guided by the famous expert in the history of foreign art,
Prof. Liu Ruli. During the three years of postgraduate studies, he wrote a
million-word textbook in the history of foreign art, which was the largest of
its kind in domestic art schools at that time, and published more than ten
articles.
In 1982, he
stayed in the school as a teacher and devoted himself both to writing books and
teaching. The Shaanxi People's Fine Arts Publishing House successively
published his three monographs, 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, which are the "first
cornerstone" and "first textbook" of the history of foreign arts
and crafts in China.
In 1986,
Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House published his A History of Modern Chinese
Painting, co-authored with Li Xiaoshan, which was a sensation when it was
released and was an important work during the ‘85 New Wave of Chinese art and
is still regarded as the "leading work" in this field.
In 1987, he
was contracted by the People's Fine Arts Publishing House in Beijing to publish
the three-volume History of Western Art
Development, which he co-authored with his mentor, Prof. Liu Ruli.
During his ten
years at the Nanjing University of the Arts, he also presided over and
participated in the declaration of the school's doctoral program, and at the
age of thirty-one he was promoted to be associate professor, the youngest one
at the time.
In 1988, at
the age of thirty-five, he went to the Hainan Special Economic Zone, and worked
as the first dean of the School of Arts at Hainan University.
Three years
later, he left his job to go into business, which he has been doing for nearly
thirty-five years till now.
In spite of
all the business hectic times, he has not dared to slacken on his studies.
In 1997,
Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House published the World Painting Treasures, edited and contributed by him, with
twenty volumes, three thousand pictures and hundreds of thousands of words. The
book was listed as a key book during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000)
of China, and won the only gold medal for art books in the publishing system.
In 1998, Shanghai
People's Fine Arts Publishing House published Encyclopedia of World Art
(CD-ROM), edited by him and with contributions by Prof. Zuo Zhuangwei, and
this book brings together nearly 10,000 works of Western painting, sculpture,
architecture and arts and crafts.
In 2009,
Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Publishing House published his monograph A History of World Arts and Crafts. The
year 2011 saw the publication of his monograph A History of European Art in two volumes.
At the same
time, he has never forgotten to paint during his more than thirty years in
business. Over the years, he has devoted himself to sketching and oil painting
of golf course landscapes all over the world. Because he has been playing golf
for thirty years, he has preserved more than one thousand oil paintings of golf
course landscapes. In terms of the subject matter of the oil painting
landscapes alone, it is unique in today's painting world.
On November 8,
2023, a large-scale "Golf Landscapes Oil Painting Exhibition" was
held at the AMNUA.
On June 13,
2024, "Golf Landscapes - Zhang Shaoxia Solo Exhibition" was held at
the University of London in the UK.
On June 22,
2024, "Golf Landscapes - Zhang Shaoxia Solo Exhibition" was held at
the Bellini Museum in Florence, Italy.
On September
5, 2024, "Golf Landscapes - Zhang Shaoxia Solo
Exhibition" was held at Sorbonne University in Paris, France.
On September 11, 2024, "Golf Landscapes - Zhang Shaoxia Solo Exhibition" was held at the Aula Magna Art Center of the University of Leuven in Belgium.