Author:Liu Kuang-Lei

Size:Length:143.2 x Width:69.2 (cm)

Size description：189x80.3x5.1(含框)

Introduction：Liu Kuang-Lei (1915-1992), born Liu Shen-Chai, with the courtesy name Kuang-Lei, was a Taiwanese ink plum blossom painter from Pingyin County, Shandong Province. His grandfather, Liu Hsu-Sen, was a Qing-era scholar, and Liu grew up in a scholarly environment with a strong appreciation for literature and the arts. Later, he pursued a military career, graduating from the 19th class of the Central Military Academy, and served in various campaigns across North China and South China. After the fall of the mainland, he relocated to Taiwan with the military, retiring as a lieutenant colonel and settling in Tainan City. In his leisure time, he studied traditional Chinese painting under Liu Shen and Chiang Cheng-Tsan for personal enjoyment. Beyond painting, he also practiced martial arts for health, maintaining a disciplined routine of morning training and post-meal painting for decades.

Liu Kuang-Lei is best known in the art world for his self-developed “Plum Blossom Tai Chi Diagram,” a series of 38 paintings that ingeniously merge Tai Chi movements with plum blossom imagery and calligraphic artistry, showcasing his distinctive style. In these paintings, plum trunks form the body, roots represent the feet, and branches extend as hands, with each composition illustrating a specific Tai Chi movement. Additionally, he created the “Eight Virtues of Plum Blossom,” symbolizing loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, love, trust, righteousness, harmony, and peace. Another of his innovations was the “Plum Blossom Calligraphy Paintings,” featuring eight characters—“dignity, reverence, self-improvement, resilience, adaptability, composure, fortitude, and fearlessness”—which emphasized national integrity and served as an inspirational reflection of post-war anti-communist literary and artistic influences.

Whether through Tai Chi, Eight Virtues, or Calligraphy Paintings, Liu’s art was deeply rooted in Tai Chi principles. By incorporating techniques such as brushstrokes’ turns, lifts, pauses, and flows, as well as breath control, energy circulation, and dynamic balance, he achieved a seamless harmony between body and art, creating a fusion of painting and martial arts. Critics praised his work as “painting within Tai Chi, Tai Chi within painting.” Among post-war plum blossom painters, he developed a singular artistic identity. His depictions of withered branches and winter plums resembled reclusive scholars, while his twisting, rugged trunks exuded a vigorous strength akin to a pillar of resilience. The delicate white plum blossoms adorning the branches provided a striking contrast, soft yet vibrant in their refined elegance.

Accession Number:PT10101300

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