Oil on canvas

72.5 × 60.5 cm. 28 1/2 × 23 7/8 in.

Signed in Chinese and English on bottom right; signed in English and Chinese, titled, and dated on the reverse
PROVENANCE
31 Oct 2004, Sotheby's Hong Kong Autumn Auction, Lot 333
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

Within the Scene of Detachment,Sounding the Ambitious Heart
Chu Teh-Chun's Monumental Recreation of the Nature

In 1955, Chu Teh-Chun began his art journey in France and established the creative spirit of combining Chinese and Western abstractive expression styles. By 1999, he became famous and the first Chinese artist to be awarded the honorary title of the French Academy of Art. In his half-century of creation, Chu targeted the goal of “Ignite the light source, evoke the image and rhythm.” He strived to turn what he saw into the inner aesthetic construction. Inspired by the strikes of the ink calligraphy, the spatial aesthetic arrangement of the landscape paintings of the Tang and Song Dynasties, and the lyrical rhythm, he founded his way to explore and interpret the world. He presented the traditional oriental concept of “Nature” to the Western world with a brand-new elegance, then he reintroduced it to the Chinese, achieving his artistic perfection and integration since the 1970s.

The Poetry Scenery: Peak of Creation in the 70s

Since the 1970s, Chu had made important breakthroughs and had been widely recognized by galleries. For example, in 1972, he signed a four-year exhibition contract with Galerie Soleil in Paris, and successively held solo exhibitions at Galerie Mikeldi in Spain, Galeire Die Dritte Welt in German, expanding his overseas reputation. During his exhibitions, Chu visited various local art galleries in Munich and thus encountered German Expressionism. In the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky, the master of Expressionism, he was deeply inspired by the melodic structure, the collection of cool and warm multi-colour tones, and the art form that started viewers' spiritual imagination. In his Composition No.541 (Lot 84) completed in 1973, he used strong and bright colours to strengthen the visual energy. He adjusted the layout of the oriental vertical landscape into the expression of abstract forms. The blank left at the bottom forms a contrast against the fulfilled upper part. The rolling brushstrokes are like a mountainous scene, and the smooth colour spread turns into the flowing water, with the rhythm of natural life lingering in the variegated colours.

The Bright Orange and Green, the Vibrant Colours Dancing on the Canvas

After visiting Rembrandt's 300th Birthday Anniversary Retrospective in 1969, Chu refined the extreme contrast of light in Renaissance religious paintings into the element, “light source”, which he regarded as the guiding force of colour and line in the painting. Most of his creations in the 1970s take strong black-white contrast as the main theme, but this Composition No.541 has a unique approach. Chu rarely used warm and dazzling orange and brick red, and shaded large areas of warm colour on it, presenting a grand visual effect, reminding viewers of the line of Su Shi, “Autumn is the best time of a year, you must remember the lively orange and green colours.” Tiny light spots converge in the white area in the middle, dancing like the brilliance of gems. Among them, contrasting colours are used boldly, with fresh vermilion and dark green juxtaposed at the centre, and the transitional changes of multiple colours such as carmine, olive green, lemon yellow, etc., continue to spread, burst, and ignite, mobilizing strong colour emotions. The painting combines the fiery heat of the fire, the heavyweight of earth, the floating of wind, and the flow of water, presenting the grand universe to the viewers and forming an ingenious and unforgettable visual experience.

Turning the Visible into the Invisible: His Philosophy Shaped in the 1990s

By the end of the 1990s, Chu's art creation reached its culmination, and his works were precisely defined as “abstract landscapes”. In his works, the viewers can share his imagination of the natural pulsation and a profound meditation on the universe. The calligraphy composed of abstract lines and conveyed by light and colour, marks the eternity of the beauty, which could be found in his Rivages Ténébreux (Lot 85) painted in 1999-2000.

The Stroke of White in Calligraphy

Chu adapted the oriental calligraphy technique, feibai, “flying white” in Rivages Ténébreux. The refined and detailed white paint composes the main body of the work. He introduced the dry brush technique into the oil painting creation, added a large amount of turpentine to blend the paint, and dipped the oil paint with a large, dry brush to form mottled traces of virtual and real intertwining in the vertical and horizontal undulating strokes. The strokes are either trembling and tiling, or gyrating and intertwining, with rich layers to build a monstrous sea, showing the sense of speed in the strokes. Such a strong tension created by the oriental brushwork and ink style is the height of Chu's art, an art style that fused and balanced the East and the West techniques. The painting's texture is as rich as those of ink paintings, presenting the senses of ink flow. In Chu's painting, the viewers can even find the sceneries that were depicted in Ma Yuan's paintings. The Southern Song Dynasty painter painted the twelve-volume Water Studies, including various ink techniques and styles on wave painting. Chu changed the colour, shape, and brushwork in his paintings along with his mood and thoughts, integrating poetry, calligraphy, and painting into one, and compose an intriguing aesthetic chapter.

Majestic Spirit: Boulders Pierce through the Air, Rolling up Thousands of Piles of Snow

When it came to the creation of Rivages Ténébreux, Chu had established his artistic fame and achievements in Europe. He held numerous solo exhibitions at home and abroad, such as the 1998 Taipei Fine Arts Museum Exhibition, the 1999 Solo Exhibition at the Tamales Castle in France, and the 2000 touring exhibitions curated by the French Diplomatic Ministry. The Galerie Patrice Trigano in Paris started the cooperation with him, held a series of solo exhibitions for him in the late 1990s, being responsible for his international promotion. The first appearance of Rivages Ténébreux was also at the gallery.

In the 1990s, Chu travelled all over Europe and Asia, and absorbed the essence from the creations of classical masters. As a landscape theme described by many classical masters, Rivages Ténébreux is named after a figurative way. The imagination starts from the coast view, gradually grows into an abstract and poetic world. In the painting, the waves surge up one after the other, rushing towards the coast on both sides, splashing layers of white waves. The centre sinks inward, condensing the power of the flood. The huge waves climb up, breaking the sky in the morning, swallowing the orange glow into the co-rotation, which can be compared with the storm paintings by the French romantic pioneer Théodore Géricault and the British landscape master William Turner. However, Chu did not stop at imitating nature, yet re-constructing the landscape according to his mental image. Intense blueish green, orange, along with the layers of the brush, gradually infiltrate the deep Prussian blue. While referring to the vicissitudes of the wind and clouds, they are also transformed into various light and shadows, connecting the elements in the universe.

Price estimate:
HKD: 1,300,000 - 2,300,000
USD: 165,600 - 293,000

Auction Result:
HKD: 1,800,000