Considered among the most distinguished contemporary Asian sculptors in the world, Ju Ming rose to prominence early in the 1970s when his highly acclaimed Taichi series captivated audiences in Taiwan.

International fame and recognition ensued over the following years as Ju moved to New York and held exhibitions abroad. Ju Ming’s work has been widely sought by global collectors and dealers, and has continually appreciated in market value over recent years. Additionally, his works have witnessed a growth rate in value of over 300 percent within the past decade alone. This tremendous ascension has secured Ju Ming’s placement on the auction market’s list of the world’s top 100 selling artists, a remarkable status that no other living Taiwanese artist has achieved.

An important milestone in Ju Ming’s development, the Taichi series exhibits the maturity of the artist’s sculptural language and aesthetic style. The series epitomizes the transformation from his previously meticulous and formal craftsmanship to a sculptural aesthetic characterized by complete ease and freedom, achieving a stage that transcends the self. Ju’s selection of the ancient martial art of Taichi as his subject matter was not premeditated. During his apprenticeship with Yuyu Yang, Ju was encouraged by his mentor to adopt exercise in Taichi as means of increasing the artist’s strength to sculpt. After several months of study, Ju became so absorbed with Taichi that he continually visualized various moves in his mind. These visualizations inspired the artist to translate the fluid motions of Taichi into static sculptures. Ju Ming believed that sculpting and practicing Taichi both derived from the same source of self-cultivation and exploration. For more than two decades, Ju Ming created numerous sculptures under the Taichi series. From early individual figurines to pairs of boxers, to exceedingly abstract arches in later years, the Taichi series demonstrates the evolution of Ju Ming’s artistic pursuit in terms of stylistic development, exploration of medium, and advancement in sculpting technique.

In his Taichi series, Ju Ming embodies the serenely powerful ambiance of oriental philosophy and traditional culture. A spiritual practice, Taichi allows practitioners to connect deeply with nature, and achieve a balance between the opposing cosmological forces of yin and yang. Imbued with spiritual power, Ju Ming’s Taichi sculptures epitomize the mystifying essence of nature. Ju Ming masterfully articulates this abstruse traditional Chinese spirit through an aesthetic inspired by Western Modernist expression.

While distinct in form, each exploration in Ju Ming’s Taichi series contains inspiration from traditional Chinese aesthetics. Deliberately departing from his highly meticulous and realistic sculpting techniques, Ju instead elects to imitate the traditional Chinese painting and calligraphic aesthetic of qiyun shengdong—“spiritual resonance and life-like motion”—as a means of articulating a sense of liveliness and vitality.

Ju Ming’s Taichi series also displays a direct influence from his master Yuyu Yang’s works. Yang’s Taroko series, created in the 1970s during Ju’s apprenticeship, possesses a corresponding impression of nature. Both series share the stylistic qualities of artificial mountains and rocks in traditional Chinese gardens, with the rough textures and simplified abstract forms merging into natural scenes.

Ju Ming’s unrestricted and unintentional sculpting technique emanates clearly from works such as Taichi Series—Single Whip (Lot 507), where the wooden medium prominently displays each carved stroke. As seen in this piece, Ju Ming’s artistic style shares similarities with the dafupicun technique of Chinese painting, where strokes are applied with the intention of resembling the cuts made by a large axe. In this wooden Single Whip, the artist has allowed each stroke to remain visible, therefore combining with the finished form as an integral part of the sculpture itself. Here, the negative space created by act of sculpting and the wooden body which remains merge together as an embodiment of yin and yang which the artist continually celebrates throughout his sculptural series. In keeping with the ideals of this technique, Ju Ming believes that when sculpting, there is no reason to think. Only the most direct way of sculpting can create the most genuine piece of art.

In Taichi (Lot 505), Ju has similarly allowed the texture of the mold to remain macroscopic. Single Whip is perhaps the most frequently explored position in Ju Ming’s Taichi series. An example of Ju’s early Taichi sculptures, this lot depicts an individual figure lowering his body with one leg deeply bent and the other gracefully straightened. The figure raises his hands in a wide gesture implying readiness, a stance appropriate for both offence and defence. The elegant poise with which Ju has expertly sculpted this staunch figure signifies the harmony and balance between the dualities of strength and tenderness, as well as motion and stillness. Despite its size, energy and contemplation exude from the refined figure.

Such fluidity of form comes in spite of a relatively angular and hard-edged contour; Taichi retains a certain degree of steadfast weightiness, attributed to the influence of ancient Roman architecture from Ju’s visit to Europe in 1976. While in Europe, the artist found himself entranced by how the arrangement of large rocks had constructed such magnificent architecture, inspiring him to simplify excessive details and produce clean contours in order to express a sense of monumentality.

Taichi exhibits other such qualities of Ju’s Western art influences, especially in its vitality and dynamism, which compares to Italian futurist Umberto Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space created in 1913. Regarded as a prototype of Western sculpture in motion, Boccioni’s figure strides forth, emanating a sense of strength and speed, while the simple and curvaceous contours extend the movement into infinite space. Ju Ming’s Taichi carries a similar potency and dynamic quality, claiming an imaginary space greater than its physical volume.

In his continuing exploration of Taichi movements, Ju Ming created a series of Sparring Taichi (also called Boxing) based on the spirit of the confrontational yet harmonious duality of yin and yang. Taichi Boxing (Lot 504) is a rare piece within this dynamic series. This lot depicts a complementary pair of boxers engaged in fluid combat. One captured mid-strike, the other in protective defence, the pair expresses a sense of balance and harmony in spite of the disparity in their relative sizes. Pushing and pulling at the same time, the two boxers are in concert with each other, signifying the flowing exchange of the yin and yang forces. This exploration in expressing the flow of energy would later evolve into Ju’s final array of his Taichi series – the Arches.

The Taichi Arches exemplify Ju Ming’s ultimate abstraction in his sculptures. In this series, Ju simplifies the combatant movements into sheer abstract forms, emphasizing the animation of the progression of force rather than delineating the perceivable actions. “In the past, there is a distance between two individuals pushing hands,” Ju explains, “Now, I connect the hands. Once connected, the flow of energy and the sway of muscles will merge as one, then transform into the form of an arch.” Taichi Series—Taichi Arch (Lot 506), created in 2000, epitomizes the conceptual nature of the series with a form more abstract and consolidated than earlier sculptures. Unfettered from the limitations of bodily shapes, this lot vividly exhibits the tranquil yet forceful intentions of Taichi.

In his later series, Ju Ming adopted Styrofoam as his molding material, going so far as to rip the Styrofoam to create textural depth, a technique clearly visible in works such as Taichi Series—Taichi Arch. Ju Ming’s rapid and unintentional sculpting technique imbues his Taichi series with miraculous vitality, further illustrating his unique artistic style.

A diligent artist who has never stopped producing artworks, Ju Ming, undeterred by his age, still perpetually creates his Living World series, which continues to demonstrate the artist’s indomitable creativity. Nevertheless, the Taichi series remains as the most representative and valuable series within Ju’s large body of works. Since 2002, when Ju Ming ceased production of his Taichi series, the market value for these works has been rising steadily, and is believed to continue its ascent in the global market.