Biography:

Shao Dazhen (b. 1934, Jiangsu Province) is an art historian, art critic and Professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Shao studied art history at an art school in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) from 1955 to 1960. After returning to China, he became a professor of art history at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Shao has also been the secretary of the Chinese Artists Association and is currently the Director of its Theory Committee.

In his roles as editor of both World Art (Shijie meishu) and Art (Meishu) magazines in the 1980s, Shao was an important figure in the development of contemporary Chinese art. Over the last decades, he has been researching the history of Western art and modern Chinese art and his published works include Brief Discussion on Modern Art (1982), Traditional Art and Modern Art (1983), Western Modern Art Thought (1990) and The Nude in Oil Paintings from China (1993).