Oil on canvas

127×96 cm. 50×37 3/4 in

Signed in Pinyin and dated on bottom left

LITERATURE
2010, Light─ Huang Yuxing’s Drawing Exhibition, Red Bridge Gallery, Shanghai, Pl. 7
EXHIBITED
23 Jun – 10 Jul 2007, Solo Exhibition of Chu Teh-Chun, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
19 Sep – 23 Nov 2008, Chu Teh-Chun 88 Retrospective, National Museum of History, Taipei

PROVENANCE
Important Private Collection, Asia

In February of 1999, a historically significant inauguration was taking place within the great arch hall of Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Chu Teh-Chun, now nearly 80 years old, was honored with membership of Académie des Beaux-Arts, becoming the first Chinese member as well as the first Eastern artist the academy has seen in 200 years.
M.J. Cardot, the master of ceremonies and a member of the academy, addressed in his speech：“Member Chu Teh-Chun’s life of art has enriched every aspect of European culture.” This is undoubtedly a great acknowledgement of Chu Teh-Chun’s contribution to the development of 20th century Western painting. The root that enriches Western world is precisely the Eastern aesthetics of Chinese traditional ink art, which allowed Chu Teh-Chun to embrace the world but return to his Chinese roots, and translating the brush and ink techniques along with its poetic elegance that have been passed on for centuries in China onto Western oil medium in a lyrical way. Together, the two flourish into a form of composure unique to Cold Abstraction yet retain the sensibilities of Lyrical Abstraction； as the form combined with the revolutionary artistic vocabulary of Chinese abstraction, Chu becomes a significant benchmark who has “emulated the past to enrich the present” in the development of 20th Century Chinese and Western art.
Matured Self：Eastern Abstraction at Its First Apex
When Chu studied at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou in the 30’s, Wu Dayu, Chu’s most respected teacher, instilled in him the most profound influence regarding painting techniques, theories and concepts. He recalled his teachings vividly：“paintings transcribe an artist’s feelings toward nature as well as that fleeting moment of reality in the universe.” When Chu Teh-Chun was painting in the Basian mountains in Taiwan in the early 1950’s, he had an epiphany upon recalling the landscape paintings （shanshui） of the Tang and Song dynasties：Chinese traditional painting strives for the vicissitudes of the tangible and the intangible, its spiritual realm more real than the West, and its perspective and form further accentuate the artist’s emotional state of “harmony of man and nature” when confronted with nature. When Chu Teh-Chun felt ambivalent about the direction of his creative path in 1956, he saw the retrospective exhibition of Nicolas de Staël, a Russian artist, in Paris, and profound realization dawned on him：untamed and free abstract painting truly “surpassed all other movements”. This moment enabled him to gradually distance himself from replicating what is real and to find solace in Abstract Expressionism, thus discovering a portal to document that “fleeting reality”. Chu Teh-Chun gathered the “painting” that his mentor Wu Dayu spoke of in Paris, and uncovered the method through which art from the East and West mingled, these discoveries became the constant support and essence of his life-long creative career.
1960 proved to be a pivotal year in Chu Teh-Chun’s creative path as he welcomed the first peak of his career. Since his beginning in abstract creations in 1956, he had been invited to exhibit works at prominent exhibitions multiple times, dazzling the Parisian art scene. In 1960, he was nominated to exhibit at the then famed “Ecole de Paris Exhibition” that strongly advocated for abstract painting； he held a solo exhibition at Galerie Legendre, a gallery with a primary focus in abstract art as well. His work won over the critics of the French literary and art circle, was praised by various art critics, and endorsed by dedicated articles in various periodicals.
Composition No. 57, the cover artwork of the auction, was completed in 1960, a magnificent work of great maturity created at the first apex of Chu Teh-Chun’s creative life as he shifted toward abstraction. The work vividly translates the artist’s interpretation of the expressive forms of Western abstract art while launching an innovative and unique artistic sign amongst his Western peers. His work has earned the most compelling response concerning “integration of the East and West”, the proposition pursued by both Eastern and Western artists. This is a landmark work that harmonizes elements of Eastern and Western abstract paintings.
Spiritual Lines：A Spiritual Resonance of Calligraphy and Abstract Art
Chu Teh-Chun studied calligraphy under his father rigorously as a young child； nurtured in traditional Chinese calligraphy and art, Chu accumulated a solid foundation in cursive calligraphy. Chu Teh-Chun drew inspirations from the notion of “calligraphy into painting” from traditional Chinese painting, fully optimizing the emphasis on lines in Chinese calligraphy in a Western abstract expression. In Composition No.57, Chu Teh-Chun boldly exercised his paintbrushes using black ochre paint； decisive and daring, he released strokes of thick and thin black lines onto the canvas. The rhythmic pulse in Chinese calligraphy outlines the contour of mountain peaks, echoing the intricate transitions as the centered brush swirled and danced, boasting a powerful spirituality of Eastern calligraphy. The artist transcribes the robustness of calligraphy as free-flowing lines, leaping gracefully across the canvas in extraordinary form, weaving intricately webbed visual layers in the compositional space.
While Staël used palette knives to create jarring, sharp, bold and heavy diagonal lines, Chu was adept in coupling paintbrushes with the crescendos of Chinese calligraphy at varying speeds to enrich the composition with fluid elegance. H. Hartung, a Western abstract artist renowned for his expressions of line, believes that abstract lines are geometric shapes born out of unconscious automatic techniques, he thus stresses the importance of gestures and their presence in the artist’s creative process, constructing a space of surreal imagery through lines. Nonetheless, whether it be Hartung, Bazaine, Soulages or Klein, no one has ever encapsulated as many expressions as Chu Teh-Chun has in terms of lines or blocks. Their works do not contain Chu Teh-Chun’s brush techniques such as dot （dian）, turn （zhe）, falling stroke （pie）, right falling stroke （na） and other forms from Chinese calligraphy – they all stop at mere gestures.
Chu Teh-Chun cleverly transforms the spirit of “oneness of calligraphy and art” in China into Modern artistic language – to think before laying down a stroke and to paint with your soul – the calligraphic lines embody the spiritual realm existing within Eastern philosophies and the notion of Zen. If Soulages’layers of black lines entail a solemn discussion on the weight of life, Chu Teh-Chun constructs a spiritual landscape unrestrained by worldly matters in the work Composition No.57, presenting a spiritual scenery that invites your soul to roam freely.
Majestic Solemnness：Rarely-Seen Symmetrical Composition
Regarding the work’s structure, Composition No.57 employs a symmetrical composition； the light source in the center is the axis that halves the image, counteracting the rhythmic and dynamic lines to create a visual balance. The work’s symmetricity offers the image a sense of tradition and solemnness, allowing the image to sculpt out the sublimity of China’s incredible landscape with a striking presence； the rigid form of symmetrical composition is often the result of the artist’s calculated arrangement, implying the artist’s personal investment in the work. In Chu Teh-Chun’s Composition Series spanning 20 years, there are no more than three classically symmetrical works with the other two being Composition No.31 of 1959 and Composition No.53 of 1960； this is indeed the most extraordinary composition in all of Chu’s creative career, its preciousness and uniqueness are apparent.
Earthly Hues：Fluid and Lyrical Colors
From a macroscopic view of the work’s symmetricity, Chu Teh-Chun achieves an equilibrium of “motion within tranquility, tranquility within motion” on a microscopic level through color contrasts interwoven by lines and spotted color blocks. The vividly tangerine blocks are positioned visibly in the center of the image, guiding the viewer’s gaze to fall upon the source of the white energy while dark red ochre, dark green color blocks scatter across the image； under the dual contrasts of red and green, light and dark, a spatial relation with perspective surfaces gradually. The hues of Chu Teh-Chun’s color blocks are delicate and rich, carrying a uniquely light and translucent aesthetics； the mixing and overlapping of colors look similar to the coloring （ran） technique in traditional Chinese painting, emitting an elegant poise and charm. The hues’variations in light and dark forms achieve rhythms of motion and light before transitioning into a relaxed and graceful visual experience.

Price estimate:
HKD: 12, 000, 000 - 18, 000, 000
USD: 1, 538, 500 - 2, 307, 700

Auction Result:
HKD: 13,950,000