Born in Yixing, Jiangsu. Wu Guanzhong's training in Western art began at the Hangzhou National College of Art in 1936 under Lin Fengmian (1900-1991). After his graduation in 1942, he obtained a teaching position at the National Chung-ching University. He then traveled to France where he spent the next four years studying oil painting under Professor Jean Souverbie (1891-1981) at the Ecole Nationale Sup rieure des Beaux Arts and the ateliers of Andr Lhote (1885-1962) and Othon Frieze (1879-1949). He has painted in oil since 1950, even during the Cultural Revolution. His international fame is evident in two recent exhibitions of his traditional oil paintings at the Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco (1989-90) and the British Museum in London (1993). Hong Kong Museum of Art and National Museum of History in Taipei held solo exhibitions of Wu's work in 1995 and in 1997 respectively.