Ju Ming (朱銘) is well known for his sculptures, created in bronze, clay and wood, but some people may have overlooked the fact that he is a painter too.
From the beginning of this month, the Juming Museum is presenting many of Ju's newest works in the Living World Series-Monk exhibition. It offers a rare opportunity for the public to take a peek at the mind of this grand master of art.
Ju sketches monks by using charcoal pencil or ink, occasionally coloring them lightly, and applies his technique in collage works to put a different twist on traditional ink paintings.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JUMING MUSEUM
Ju also adopts the collage technique, working with yellow and orange crepe paper to create a simple elegance with geometrical shapes. By combining different art mediums and using Chinese and Western techniques, Ju's New Ink Painting was born.
"Art is cultivation and without cultivation, the flowers from the hearts can never blossom," Ju answered when asked about the source of his vitality. What Ju means is that cultivation does not refer to some abstruse Buddhist philosophy, but daily comprehension of hows and whys and taking the effort to carry it out.
Born in 1938 in a small Miaoli County town, Ju gained international fame and then dedicated 12 years of his life to build Juming Museum, by investing almost all of his money in 11 hectares of land in Chinsan (金山), Taipei County. In 1999 this legendary gallery was founded. The museum "is home to an integral collection of Ju's work throughout his career," said Calvin Ju (
At 15, Ju was trained for three years in traditional temple wood-carving. In 1968, he was under renowned sculptor and modernist Yuyu Yang's (
In 1976, Ju's "raw yet refined treatment," as Calvin Ju describes it, of his wood sculptures won him great fame after an exhibition held at the National Museum of History in Taipei.
According to Lai Shen-chon (賴賢宗), Chinese Language and Literature professor of the National Taipei University, Ju's artistic creations can be divided into three stages: First, his "Nativist Series" is represented by his well-loved sculptures of water buffalos and historical figures such as Guan Gong (
Third, his favorite "Living World Series" explores the many facets of modern life, including his recent inclusion of over 300 bronze statues of war heroes.
"Monk" is the newest art form added to the Living World Series and touches upon self-cultivation. It is, perhaps, the artist's intention to pose the timely question of inner peace, at a time when society is deeply divided.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist