Xie Zhiguang (1900-1976) was born in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province. After his graduation from the Shanghai Fine Art School, he worked for the Nanyang Tobacco Company. He later taught at the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy.

In his early years, Xie designed yuefenpai (月份牌), commercial calendar posters, magazine covers and line drawings for newspaper illustrations; later, he focused on Chinese painting.

He was the uncle of Xie Mulian (谢幕连).