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Lot Essay
The French Chinese artist Chu Teh-Chun was born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province in 1920. He studied at the National School of Art in Hangzhou and moved to Taiwan in 1949. Before moving to Paris in 1955, he taught at the Department of Fine Arts of the Normal University in Taiwan. The contribution of expressive and abstract artist Chu Teh-Chun to the arts and humanities is widely acclaimed. On 17th December 1997, he was elected as a member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts, becoming the first ethnic Chinese member of this prominent French art institution. In 2001, he was awarded Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques by the French Minister of Education and Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur by the French president.
Chu's abstract paintings evolved much in the last sixty years. Starting from figurative paintings, he turned to the abstract in late 50s. The early 60s saw the development of a style with intense colours, this is followed by the introduction of brushworks that are more free and individualized, together with a theatricality created by chiaroscuro in the 70s. A more refined and light style of brushwork that evokes those of Chinese ink painting defines the late 70s.
THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN POETRY AND COLOURS
Chu Teh-Chun adored Chinese poetry. He would ponder and feel the words in them, then developed them into images and colours in his mind before transferring them on canvas, as the scholar Zhu Wei said,
"Chu Teh-Chun immersed himself in the poetry of the Tang and Song dynasties, there was a time that he was especially sensitive to the colour red, feeling an especial emotion. The Tang poet Du Mu's rhapsodizing on storm and thunder in his 'On Heavy Rain' endowed Chu with vivid colours and strong momentum. Chu indulged himself in the autumnal sensations of the Tang and Song poets amidst the Parisian autumns.
Li Yu, who lost his kingdom, wrote about the 'dusk of chilling colours,' twisting what is supposed to be warm colour into cool one. Du Mu further described the autumn maples in a fascinating way in his 'On Autumn', 'The cool maples are redder than flowers in spring.' Cui Zhiyuan even turned the maples into drunken colours in his 'On Maples', 'Drunk, they welcome and wait for the support of the wind.' Whenever Chu read about them, he would travelled in mind, and could not hold on sitting still. He would rush into his workshop, gushed out all these fantastic 'chilling red', 'greenchanging red, 'redder-than-flowers-in-spring red' and 'drunken red', mixing and producing these metaphysical, poetic hues of red. He painted his first Autumn in 1965, then spending three years from 1968-1971 on Late Autumn and worked on a draft on autumn in 1969. He immersed himself in the autumns of the Tang and Song poets for two decades, what he painted is no longer the autumns he experienced, but the poetry, the odes, the passion and the intensity of autumn."
The Bath of Fire (Lot 391) is predominantly of different hues of red, and is a representational work of Chu's early years of exploration of the colours. In 1958, black organic shapes began to appear in his painting, developing into a system of three balanced and mutually reinforced elements: color blocks, black shapes, and calligraphic lines. Chu distills the elements of the landscape and produces symbols that represent its components which, ultimately, become forms and lines on the canvas. In terms of his research into form, Chu learns from both the geometric colour blocks of de Stael and his Chinese painting tutor from the Hangzhou National College of Art, Pan Tianshou, whose simplification of the details of great mountains and large rock formations results in a steep keystone shape that reflects an eastern artistic approach to the escape from the concept of form. Chu Teh-Chun turns the things of form into formless spirit, using colour, shape, and line to produce a silent architectural cadence.
RHYTHM IN QUICK MOVEMENTS OF THE BRUSH
In 1965, Chu glimpsed the highest peak in the Alps, Mont Blanc, and in 1969, he visited the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, to see the retrospective exhibition on the 300th anniversary of Rembrandt's death. In addition, visits to various museums in Munich, Germany in 1972 would prove to have a great influence on his work. The quick, decisive brushwork seems to have been completed in a single motion: as Chu's brushstrokes float down, flow, and turn, they make clear his future artistic direction, in which visual rhythms would be generated through the interweaving of colours.
Le 5 Janvier 1976 (Lot 392) is variation on this main direction, but with the added elements of light, shadow, and calligraphic line. The black background highlighted the bright orange-yellow brushstroke. The use of white colour on upper right further enrich the contrast between light and darkness. Chu once said, 'The colour and lines in my images are never random results, but are put together harmoniously for one common purpose: to activate light sources and call forth images and rhythms.'
PURE BLOCKS OF WHITE: THE POWER TO DISTORT SPATIAL DIMENSION
The use of blocks of white in Le 5 Janvier 1976 (Lot 392) creates spatial depth on the canvas. On the opaque background of grey are pure blocks of white on the bottom and the upper right areas of the canvas, pushing the other areas and the black lines to back of the composition, thus how the use of pure white can strongly distort the spatial relationship.
In fact, the use of white can be found early in Chu's landscape paintings. Seaview (Lot 394) painted in 1954 uses heavy paints of white to depict the waves, the sails in the background echoes with the dress of the girl in the foreground, creating a rhythmic pattern of dots of White is not simply used for decorative purpose. According to Chu's own words on his art, in his early days of painting, he paid especial attention of the concepts of Cezanne, the post-impressionist master, he would put into practice Cezanne's idea of rendering a scene by the depiction of its forms, colours and lights. His attention on Cezanne's treatment of space influenced much of his late abstract paintings.
When teaching as an art teacher in Taiwan, his style was figurative, working on themes like landscape, still life and portraits. According to surviving records, Chu painted a total of fourteen figurative oil paintings in the period from 1951-1954. Seaview from 1954 represents a rare work from this early period in Taiwan. The writer and historian Luo Chia-lun once commented that, "Chu's foremost achievement is his mastery in capturing scenery, it is not easy you need to know what to select, this is on the spatial part. When it came to the temporal, the fleeting changes of light and dark force one to not missing a single moment…" The work itself allows us a glimpse of the masterly composition and compelling brushworks that can be seen from the waves depicted.
LINES IN OIL PAINTING IN EVERY TEXTURE
After sorting out the problem with the papers for calligraphy and ink painting in around 1976, Chu resumed writing calligraphy on the Tang and Song Poetry. His observations on the lines and the beauty of lines and composition can be seen in his calligraphic work Rhapsody On The Red Cliff (Lot 396). Le 3 Fevrier 1978 and Opening A (Lot 390) reflect the changes that his resumption of calligraphy had on him. The background was done by smoothing the paint by light touches, lines were then 'written' on it by refined and deft hands and the soft tips of the brush. Chu once said, "Oil painting is about building up brushstrokes of paint, that is not the case with ink painting, because of the marvelous nature of ink, except my own subjective expressions, there are always 'heaven's working.' As I painted and painted, I naturally thought, why don't I introduce this 'heaven's working' into oil painting? From then on, I entered into an experimental, challenging and exotic realm, what I got is as the Chinese saying goes, 'there are brand new worlds." Chu Teh-Chun imbued his calligraphic lines with life and feelings. The deft lines can be compared to Mont Blanc of the Alps, pointing to the series of snow scene Chu did in the 80s and 90s. As art critic Chu Ge said, "Lines or brushstrokes in Western paintings must be understood with its subject. But those in Chinese paintings can stand independently and to be appreciated independently, this is what we call the beauty of the abstract."
Chu's abstract paintings evolved much in the last sixty years. Starting from figurative paintings, he turned to the abstract in late 50s. The early 60s saw the development of a style with intense colours, this is followed by the introduction of brushworks that are more free and individualized, together with a theatricality created by chiaroscuro in the 70s. A more refined and light style of brushwork that evokes those of Chinese ink painting defines the late 70s.
THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN POETRY AND COLOURS
Chu Teh-Chun adored Chinese poetry. He would ponder and feel the words in them, then developed them into images and colours in his mind before transferring them on canvas, as the scholar Zhu Wei said,
"Chu Teh-Chun immersed himself in the poetry of the Tang and Song dynasties, there was a time that he was especially sensitive to the colour red, feeling an especial emotion. The Tang poet Du Mu's rhapsodizing on storm and thunder in his 'On Heavy Rain' endowed Chu with vivid colours and strong momentum. Chu indulged himself in the autumnal sensations of the Tang and Song poets amidst the Parisian autumns.
Li Yu, who lost his kingdom, wrote about the 'dusk of chilling colours,' twisting what is supposed to be warm colour into cool one. Du Mu further described the autumn maples in a fascinating way in his 'On Autumn', 'The cool maples are redder than flowers in spring.' Cui Zhiyuan even turned the maples into drunken colours in his 'On Maples', 'Drunk, they welcome and wait for the support of the wind.' Whenever Chu read about them, he would travelled in mind, and could not hold on sitting still. He would rush into his workshop, gushed out all these fantastic 'chilling red', 'greenchanging red, 'redder-than-flowers-in-spring red' and 'drunken red', mixing and producing these metaphysical, poetic hues of red. He painted his first Autumn in 1965, then spending three years from 1968-1971 on Late Autumn and worked on a draft on autumn in 1969. He immersed himself in the autumns of the Tang and Song poets for two decades, what he painted is no longer the autumns he experienced, but the poetry, the odes, the passion and the intensity of autumn."
The Bath of Fire (Lot 391) is predominantly of different hues of red, and is a representational work of Chu's early years of exploration of the colours. In 1958, black organic shapes began to appear in his painting, developing into a system of three balanced and mutually reinforced elements: color blocks, black shapes, and calligraphic lines. Chu distills the elements of the landscape and produces symbols that represent its components which, ultimately, become forms and lines on the canvas. In terms of his research into form, Chu learns from both the geometric colour blocks of de Stael and his Chinese painting tutor from the Hangzhou National College of Art, Pan Tianshou, whose simplification of the details of great mountains and large rock formations results in a steep keystone shape that reflects an eastern artistic approach to the escape from the concept of form. Chu Teh-Chun turns the things of form into formless spirit, using colour, shape, and line to produce a silent architectural cadence.
RHYTHM IN QUICK MOVEMENTS OF THE BRUSH
In 1965, Chu glimpsed the highest peak in the Alps, Mont Blanc, and in 1969, he visited the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, to see the retrospective exhibition on the 300th anniversary of Rembrandt's death. In addition, visits to various museums in Munich, Germany in 1972 would prove to have a great influence on his work. The quick, decisive brushwork seems to have been completed in a single motion: as Chu's brushstrokes float down, flow, and turn, they make clear his future artistic direction, in which visual rhythms would be generated through the interweaving of colours.
Le 5 Janvier 1976 (Lot 392) is variation on this main direction, but with the added elements of light, shadow, and calligraphic line. The black background highlighted the bright orange-yellow brushstroke. The use of white colour on upper right further enrich the contrast between light and darkness. Chu once said, 'The colour and lines in my images are never random results, but are put together harmoniously for one common purpose: to activate light sources and call forth images and rhythms.'
PURE BLOCKS OF WHITE: THE POWER TO DISTORT SPATIAL DIMENSION
The use of blocks of white in Le 5 Janvier 1976 (Lot 392) creates spatial depth on the canvas. On the opaque background of grey are pure blocks of white on the bottom and the upper right areas of the canvas, pushing the other areas and the black lines to back of the composition, thus how the use of pure white can strongly distort the spatial relationship.
In fact, the use of white can be found early in Chu's landscape paintings. Seaview (Lot 394) painted in 1954 uses heavy paints of white to depict the waves, the sails in the background echoes with the dress of the girl in the foreground, creating a rhythmic pattern of dots of White is not simply used for decorative purpose. According to Chu's own words on his art, in his early days of painting, he paid especial attention of the concepts of Cezanne, the post-impressionist master, he would put into practice Cezanne's idea of rendering a scene by the depiction of its forms, colours and lights. His attention on Cezanne's treatment of space influenced much of his late abstract paintings.
When teaching as an art teacher in Taiwan, his style was figurative, working on themes like landscape, still life and portraits. According to surviving records, Chu painted a total of fourteen figurative oil paintings in the period from 1951-1954. Seaview from 1954 represents a rare work from this early period in Taiwan. The writer and historian Luo Chia-lun once commented that, "Chu's foremost achievement is his mastery in capturing scenery, it is not easy you need to know what to select, this is on the spatial part. When it came to the temporal, the fleeting changes of light and dark force one to not missing a single moment…" The work itself allows us a glimpse of the masterly composition and compelling brushworks that can be seen from the waves depicted.
LINES IN OIL PAINTING IN EVERY TEXTURE
After sorting out the problem with the papers for calligraphy and ink painting in around 1976, Chu resumed writing calligraphy on the Tang and Song Poetry. His observations on the lines and the beauty of lines and composition can be seen in his calligraphic work Rhapsody On The Red Cliff (Lot 396). Le 3 Fevrier 1978 and Opening A (Lot 390) reflect the changes that his resumption of calligraphy had on him. The background was done by smoothing the paint by light touches, lines were then 'written' on it by refined and deft hands and the soft tips of the brush. Chu once said, "Oil painting is about building up brushstrokes of paint, that is not the case with ink painting, because of the marvelous nature of ink, except my own subjective expressions, there are always 'heaven's working.' As I painted and painted, I naturally thought, why don't I introduce this 'heaven's working' into oil painting? From then on, I entered into an experimental, challenging and exotic realm, what I got is as the Chinese saying goes, 'there are brand new worlds." Chu Teh-Chun imbued his calligraphic lines with life and feelings. The deft lines can be compared to Mont Blanc of the Alps, pointing to the series of snow scene Chu did in the 80s and 90s. As art critic Chu Ge said, "Lines or brushstrokes in Western paintings must be understood with its subject. But those in Chinese paintings can stand independently and to be appreciated independently, this is what we call the beauty of the abstract."