Mr. Liang Jiang is currently Professor of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. He served as Deputy Director of NAMOC and Director of Research Institute of Fine Arts, Chinese National Academy of Arts. He previously took such posts as Jury Member of Olympic Fine Arts 2016 Brazil, Chief Design Commissioner of Olympic Fine Arts 2012 London and Jury Member of National Social Science Fund for Art Projects. He plans and takes charge of “International Symposium on Master Huang Binhong”, “Artworks Donated to National Art Museum of China in the Past 50 Years” and other large-scale academic events. Professor Liang publishes The History of Connoisseurship and Collection of Chinese Art, Record of Painting in Guangdong, New Edition of Fine Arts Introduction, Exploration for Fine Arts and other personal monographs. And he also publishes academic papers with about 4 million Chinese characters in total.

Under the era background of Guangdong’s cultural and economic development in the past nearly 500 years, this lecture referred to abundant and detailed literatures and materials, and helped audiences get a rough idea on Guangdong’s art development process since Western painting was introduced 400 years ago: More than 400 years ago, Matteo Ricci set off from Macao, passed by Zhaoqing and other places of Guangdong, and introduced Western technology and European painting into China. In the late Qing Dynasty, a group of Guangdong artists, who studied painting at abroad, set the fashion of the times and pioneered in art development process for integrating Chinese and Western Culture. Integration, leadership and innovation of Guangdong art became an important part of China’s art reform in the 20th Century.