Ink and colour on paper

70 x 69 cm.27 1/2 x 27 1/8 in.

Signed in Pinyin and Chinese，dated ’05’ on lower right

LITERATURE Frank Pages Art Galerie，Baden-Baden，Germany，Chu Teh-Chun Tusche，2006，p.6

EXHIBITED Arsenal Concert Hall，Metz，France，Chu Teh-Chun，26 Nov.2005 - 22 Jan. 2006；

Galerie Frank Pages，Baden-Baden，Germany，Chu Teh-Chun Tusche，23 Apr - 23 May. 2006.

PROVENANCE Private Collection，Europe

Sotheby’s Hong Kong，4 April 2011，Lot 622，

Acquired from the above auction by the present owner.

May in Metz No.4

Chu Teh-Chun was born into a family of educated people. He received private school before 6 years old，studying poetries，calligraphy and painting from Tang and Song Dynasties. The artist studied different calligraphy styles from Ouyang Xun，Yen Zhenqing and Liu Gong-Quan. He never gave up the oriental artistic exploration for calligraphy upon arrival to Paris. He worked with oil painting during the day while studying calligraphy at night. Chu Teh-Chun not only imitated calligraphy but actively integrated it into his creation. Apart from Chu’s classic colorful style，we could always appreciate calligraphy implications and his exploration into literati’s ink painting from Chu’s works.

“May in Metz No.4” is one of the best representatives of Chu Teh-Chun’s abstract ink painting.“May in Metz” is a special series with musicality by Chu dedicated to Arsenal Concert Hall in Metz，France in 2005. At this time Chu has already worked with ink for nearly a half century and was quite skillful at it. He used large amount of calligraphical lines with the vigorous style from Tang Dynasty and the calligrapher’s gestures of Song Dynasty. Ink lines overlap as if strong currents gathering at the center of the canvas，at the same time，as if expanding and dancing in the universe. The combination of rich orange red and Chinese calligraphy resembles bouncing music notes，taking the attention of viewers into flowery France in May. Metz is renowned as “City of Garden” with thriving spring time，filled with joy of life under the artist’s melodic lines.

The combination of calligraphy and painting is characteristic of traditional Chinese painting. Chu Teh-Chun knew about this very well but used another form of “calligraphical brush” to demonstrate the freehand brushwork of painting，giving the work the agility and grace of Chinese literati’s painting，while having the richness and expression of Western painting. Chu created a new look of poetic ink and color painting，whose agility and grace worth savoring repeatedly.

Price estimate:
HKD：580,000 - 680,000
USD：74,820 - 87,700

Auction Result:
HKD : 885,000