Ju Ming's Taichi Series has established an eminent position in the international art scene. Indeed, since his Nativist Series of the mid 1970s, Ju has opened up new directions for Taiwan's modern sculptures. For decades, with the principle of "art as self-cultivation" in mind, he has made several artistic climaxes in the form and content of sculptural art. He explored his own unique artistic language while preserving the values of traditional cultural symbols of China in the modern abstract movement. Featured here are some of the representative works by Ju Ming, ranging from his early Nativist Series, Taichi Series, to his recent Living World Series. In these sculptures we can see Ju Ming's unwavering Chinese cultural spirit conveyed in a Modernist formal language and his continuous creativity and stylistic changes.


Based on the personal life experience, Ju Ming started his Nativist Series in the 70s to devote on the subjects of the country life, animal farms and statues of gods. The works of this period show a modest friendly atmosphere. In the Figure of Christ (Lot 2227) and Kong Ming (Lot 2228), he employs the free stroke spirit from the traditional Chinese painting as his carving technique to transform the famous historical characters into abstract representations of wood sculpture with his artistic potency. The material of bronze creates the weighted volume for Huang Di (Lot 2229) and Hua Tuo (Lot 2230), and strengthens the solemn and respectful aura for the statues. Ju Ming arranges their temperament to be boundless and yet loving, native and friendly. In Buffalo (Lot 2232), Ju Ming's fast and well-executed carving technique shapes an abstract modern image for this buffalo, while he also demonstrates the delicate technique of traditional chasing at the same time. The original earthy texture and the beauty of the wood are reserved to echo with the image of buffalo and the honest and persistent folk style in Taiwanese farms of the old time.