ILLUSTRATED:
Solo Exhibition of Chu Teh-Chun, The Ueno Royal Museum (catalogue), Tokyo; Thin Chang Corporation, Taipei, 2007, color illustrated, p. 124
To be included in the catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre prepared by the artist's studio.

This painting is to be sold with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist's wife, Ching-chao Chu.

ABSTRAIT
CHU TEH-CHUN

FAN KUAN HAS SAID THAT “LEARNING FROM NATURE IS BETTER THAN LEARNING FROM MAN, AND THE HUMAN HEART IS AN EVEN GREATER SOURCE OF LEARNING THAN NATURE.” WHAT HE MEANT WAS THAT IT IS THE PAINTER WHO IS IN CONTROL, AND THAT A CONCEPT OF ABSTRACTION ALREADY EXISTED IN HIS TIME. THE CHINESE PEOPLE JUST DIDN'T USE THE TERM ‘ABSTRACTION’, THAT'S ALL. THE ARTIST ABSORBS WHAT HE SEES IN NATURE AND REFINES IN HIS MIND, AND WHAT IS REVEALED ON CANVAS IS THE POWER OF THE ARTIST’S IMAGINATION, HIS SENSIBILITY, AND HIS INNER CHARACTER. THIS IS WHERE THE CONCEPTS BEHIND CHINESE PAINTING COME TOGETHER WITH THE IDEA OF ABSTRACTION.”

– CHU TEH-CHUN

Abstrait testifies to the tempestuous world of Chu’s abstract art through the portrayal of a sinuous amalgam of broad and fine brushstrokes, endowed with a poetic and metaphysical meaning that goes beyond physical form. The present lot invites the viewers into a world of dream, where a gulf of whirling heavy brushstrokes occupy the central plane, the clashing and interconnectivity of the rhythmic lines that oscillated amidst the quivering spatial arrangement hinting at the dexterity of the artist’s brushstrokes. It illustrates Chu’s mastery in comprehending the harmonic nuances of the natural world, the resulting work is saturated with energy, sensibility, and spontaneity as the broad swaths and unrestrained calligraphy like lines gathered and intertwined in a proliferation and become a field of tumultuous action that captivates the vehement fervor and dynamic momentum of the natural world that has no end and no beginning. Abstrait encompasses the mysterious realm between form and the formless, the temporal and the eternal, thereby inducing one’s imagination to wonder in this incandescent metamorphosis of Chu’s infinite universe that changes unceasingly.

The wave of abstract expressionism in 1950s Paris ignited a passion in the artist that led him down the path of abstract painting. At a visit to a retrospective on Nicolas de Staël at the Paris Museum of Modern art in 1956, he was swept up by the passionate imagery and released from the fetters of figurative art. Soon after, he began his own experiments with abstract creation. In 1960, Chu Teh-chun was invited to participate in the Ecole de Paris Exhibition with an oil painting marked by Chinese conceptual imagery, cementing his reputation in the Paris art scene. The painting, with its strong, calligraphic line structure and rich sense of movement, was well received by Western art critics. French poet Hubert Juin was Chu's first ardent critical supporter. He writes: A native of Jiangsu Province steeped in the arts of Hangzhou, this member of the phenomenon that is the Ecole de Paris has eschewed the figurative arts, rediscovering (perhaps inventing) an emergent style based on the written form. We know that he was heavily influenced by Fauvism at first, but he quickly found his own syntax and personal style, presenting us with a powerful and vibrant imagery. (Natif de la province de Kiang-Sou, étudiant aux beaux arts de Hang-Tchéou, membre de plein droit de ce fantasme qu'est l'Ecole de Paris, vite dédaigneux de la voie figurative, Chu Teh-chun redécouvre [inventant ce qui est] les qualitiés d'écriture qui sont nécessaires au surgissement. Le fauvism le requite un moment. L'envie qu'il avait [le souci] d'explorer l'espace lui permit sans trop attendre de se créer un vocabulaire et une syntaxe personnele.)