Tai Chi Figure

This large piece, on the east lawn of Green Hall, was purchased by the Spencer Museum in 1987 with support from the Wescoe Fund, endowed by former Chancellor and Mrs. W. Clarke Wescoe.

The piece honors Barbara Wescoe’s father, Judge Willard M. Benton, a 1920 alumnus of the School of Law. It was dedicated Oct. 31, 1987.

The bronze, cast and welded, is 8 feet 10 inches tall, 15 feet 11 inches wide and 7 feet deep. It portrays a figure in the dynamic "Snake Creeps Down" pose typical of the soft-style martial art of tai chi, which emphasizes strength and balance.

Its sculptor, Zhu Ming, was born in Taiwan in 1938 and trained as a woodcarver. He is noted for his series of taiji (shadow-boxing) figures begun in the mid-1970s, of which the Green Hall figure is one.