呂佛庭   Lu, Fo-Ting   1911~2005

Fo-Ting Lu, pet name Tian-Ci, courtesy name Fo-Ting, was born in Biyang county, Henan province, China, in 1911. He styled himself as “Semi-Monk” and replaced his real name with his courtesy name. Following the laws of Buddha, he abstained from meat from the age of ten. He developed literacy at the age of five by employing the method of tracing over red characters. At the age of ten, he modeled his calligraphy upon several masters such as Xun Ouyang, Zhen-Qing Yan, Yao Zhong and Xi-Zhi Wang, and different scripts such as the tablet inscriptions effloresced in the Six Dynasties and small seal script . His standard and clerical scripts imbibed the unique features of great seal script with robust and solemn strokes that radiated a natural and graceful aura. At the age of eight, the artist learned Flowers-and-Birds painting by reference to the Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden, and studied Western-style painting after enrolling at a Christian High School at the age of 15. Lu moved from Xi’an to Taiwan in 1948, after which successively taught at Taiwan Provincial Taichung Normal School, National Taiwan Normal University and the College of Chinese Culture. In 1955, the artist discussed the idea of running a school of arts with Zhong-Xin Lin. The following year, he held office in the Council of Art Education, Ministry of Education and concurrently served as the director of the fine arts department of the National Center of Arts. The artist co-founded the Art Society of China with Shou-Hua Ma, Meng-Gu Yao, Jun-Zhi Yu and Juan-Fu Fu in 1961, and also assisted his disciples in establishing the Guo-Feng Calligraphy and Painting Society in 1976. Lu devoted a lifetime to calligraphy and ink painting education, and won numerous prestigious awards, including the 1st Zhongshan Literary and Artistic Creation Award, the Special Prize of the National Culture and Arts Award, the Ministry of Education 1st Class Culture Medal, and the National Cultural Award of the R.O.C. (Taiwan). Lu was a prolific artist who made several famous long scrolls, such as A Landscape of the Shu Roads, A Landscape of the Yangtze River, A Landscape of the Great Wall, A Landscape of the Yellow River, and A Landscape of the Central Cross-Island Highway. These masterpieces are tantamount to a summary of his landscape sketches drawn during his voyage across the country, and they mark the peak of his career in landscape ink paintings. In addition, the artist devoted a great deal of energy to studying Chinese painting history and theory, which resulted in the publication of several influential books, including The Origins of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting and The Ideologies of Chinese Paintings. Lu has been highly praised as a grand master in recognition of his remarkable artistic and academic achievements.