Oil on canvas

81 x 65 cm. 31 7/8 x 22 in.

Signed in Chinese and English, dated on bottom right

LITERATURE
1994, Chu Teh-Chun's Abstract World-Language of Eastern Abstract, Dimensions Art Center, Taipei, plate 17
EXHIBITED
12 Nov – 4 Dec 1994, Chu Teh-Chun's Abstract World-Language of Eastern Abstract, Dimensions Art Center, Taipei

PROVENANCE
Dimension Art Center, Taipei
Important Private Collection, Asia

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Dimensions Art Center, Taipei

Note: This work will be included in the artist's forthcoming catalogue raisonné prepared by Madame Thérèse

Stroke Rhythm, Impressive Vigor
Matière Centrale: the Crystallization of Chu's Travels in the 1990s

“I always paint what I observed during my trips. Some works are created out of pure compulsion and others are to revoke memories buried deep in mind. The canvas to me has life. When I have a canvas in front of me, all sorts of feelings emerge, be they awakened by breathtaking landscape or inner thoughts …”
——Chu Teh-Chun

Despite reaching seventy years old in 1990, Chu Teh-Chun still set off travelling in the early 1990s around the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and the United States to derive “mental imagery landscape” from Western masters of art. This period, termed by Chu “the roaming of my mind”, witnessed the birth of Matière Centrale, which is based on his observations and reflections over the trip. Chu placed a huge block at the center that runs from top to bottom. His artistic attainments are also like a Matière Centrale that is full of wandering imagination.

The Tug of Conflict between Light and Shadow

When Chu Teh-Chun was staying in Venice in the spring of 1991, he was mesmerized by the composition and contrast of the paintings by Venetian artists Titian and Tintoretto. “Chu's stint in Italy exposed him to Italian painting, a crucial discovery for the artist. A new type of art made its way into the reserves of the artist's emotional vicissitudes,” said French art critic Pierre Cabane. Matière Centrale, which was finished in 1994, is a milestone of his mastery of brushwork and color use that represent his intangible connections with master painters. Chu separated bright and dark color blocks and broke away from the common practice of using black as a complement to colors by allowing the black cylinder to sit right at the center accompanied by layers of diverse colors at the bottom. The bright spots trigger the intense color interplay and create the tug of war between light and shadow. Chu integrated the pursuit of combining virtual and physical elements in traditional painting with Western style of color use, a technique that makes his painting full of vigor.

Brushwork as Gurgling Stream to Invoke Mental Imagery

“The brush in his hands goes with the rhythm of Chinese calligraphy and gives colors rhythm as well. The dark-toned color gradient under light gives off glittering sparks.”
——French Art Critic Raoul-Jean Moulin

Chu's skillful brush control is his major approach to create composition and color interplay. In Matière Centrale, he started with forceful strokes at the bottom and then used calligraphy techniques to swing slowly upwards, adding layer to the texture and forming a strong momentum. His brushwork, like a gurgling stream, presented his “mental imagery” poetically, just as the art critic Lydia Harambourg once said, “Chu revived the initial rhythm through the brush. Both calligraphy and painting ask for the compulsion to create, which in its full play will be able to produce stunning visual effects”.

Price estimate:
HKD: 2,000,000 – 3,000,000
USD: 258,100 – 387,100

Auction Result:
HKD: 2,478,000