Zhu Ming (Ju Ming)

Best known for his series of iconic Taichi fighters, Zhu Ming is recognized as perhaps the pre-eminent modern Chinese sculptor.  The Single Whip position is the best known of these, and large versions of it have graced the covers of Zhu's international exhibition catalogues including those of Singapore National Museum (1986), London South Bank Centre (1991), Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan (1995) and Place Vendôme in Paris (1997).  The present piece is an earlier version made in the mid-1980s, cast from a wooden mold that speaks to his early apprenticeship as a woodcarver.