WEI LIGANG (b.1964) Zhu Ma Ting (Stop the Horse and Listen), 2010WEI LIGANG (b.1964)Zhu Ma Ting (Stop the Horse and Listen), 2010Ink and acrylic on paper, signed at the lower rightcorner, framed. 180cm high x 96cm wide (70 3/4in high x 37 3/4in wide)魏立剛(1964年生) 駐馬聽 水墨丙烯紙本 鏡框 2010年作Published, Illustrated and Exhibited: Michael Goedhuis, Wei Ligang, London, 2014, pp.26-27.展覽著錄：Michael Goedhuis著，《魏立剛》，倫敦，2014，第26-27頁Wei Ligang was born in Datong, the first capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) and home to the famous Buddhist grottoes of Yungang, which instilled in him a fondness for the grandeur of Han (202 BC- 220 AD) and Tang dynasty (618-907) art. Wei's father was an art-loving railroad worker, who inspired in Wei an interest in both mechanics and calligraphy. When he was 17, Wei entered the mathematics department of Nankai University, where he honed his logical and analytical skills. Wei also became President of the University Calligraphy Society, where he came under the mentorship of the local masters Li Henian (1912-2000), Wang Xuezhong (1925-2013), and Sun Boxiang (1934-) in classical poetry and epigraphic scripts. Wang Xuezhong, an early pioneer of Modern Calligraphy, was especially influential to Wei.After graduating from Nankai University in 1985, Wei Ligang became a teacher in Taiyuan and immersed himself in the legacy of Fu Shan (1607-1684), a fellow Shanxi native. From 1995, he increasingly engaged with abstract painting and international contemporary art. Over the 90s, Wei gained prominence as a young pioneer of Modern Calligraphy, participating and organising a number of influential exhibitions in the field. Wei Ligang delights in abstraction and has pushed the boundaries of calligraphy further than most contemporary calligraphers. His wide-ranging inspirations include ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, industrial civilisation and modern machines, European castles and palaces, contemporary physics and astronomy, and the structures of animals and plants. He employs the bright colours of gold, red, and blue, and uses acrylic paints to increase substance and texture. In these respects his art differs from traditional Chinese calligraphy, which typically is monochrome. Wei Ligang's works are in the collections of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; British Museum; Cernuschi Museum, Paris; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle; National Museum of China, Beijing; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; François-Henri Pinault Family, France; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; among others.