La forêt blanche I (The White Forest I)

1987

Oil on canvas

130 x 196 cm

Signed lower right CHU TEH-CHUN in Chinese and English, dated 89
Titled on the reverse La forêt blanche I in French, CHU TEH-CHUN in English and Chinese, dated 1987

Estimate
32,000,000 - 40,000,000
7,620,000 - 9,524,000
978,600 - 1,223,300
Sold Price
43,890,000
10,619,405
1,357,983

Ravenel Autumn Auction 2006

059

CHU Teh-chun (Chinese-French, 1920 - 2014)

La forêt blanche I (The White Forest I)


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EXHIBITED:


Exposition des œuvres recentes de Chu Teh-Chun, Shanghai Art Museums, Shanghai, October 12 - November 10, 2005

ILLUSTRATED:


Chu Teh-Chun, Shanghai Bookstore publishing House, Shanghai, 2005, color illustrated, pp.154-155

Pierre-Jean Remy, Chu Teh-Chun, Editions de La Difference, Paris, 2006, color illustrated, p.157

Catalogue Note:

Chu Teh-chun is an artist who is never satisfied with his work, constantly challenging himself to improve and looking for more creative forms of expression. This characteristic is evident in his later paintings that were distinctly broader in scope and larger in size than in his earlier works. His unique style of depicting the traditional Chinese landscapes in abstract form without losing the romantic appeal is well known and even in his advanced age, he continues to surprise his admirers with every painting. The highly valued "Sow scenes"series completed between 1985 and 1989 comprises no more than 20 pieces and the scarcity is what made it fervently pursued by Chu Teh-chun's fans. Chu Teh-chun recalled the snow scenes he had encountered during his travels that had he had encountered during his travels that had inspired him to paint this exquisites series. He told art critic Chu Ko during an interview: "I have done many paintings with various shades of white, inspired by the snow-capped mountains I saw in the Alps while traveling in Geneva. On a cloudy day, the white from the sea of clouds and the white of the snow were clearly discernible and changing constantly. This phenomenon filled my mind with images of clouds continuously floating on a bed of white. My spirit felt as though it was floating up and down in concert with the changes in the shade and density of that scene and in a flash, many of the familiar images portrayed in the Tang poems rushed into my head. I simply could not wait to go home and put these images on canvas. I wanted to capture in paint my feelings in that moment..."(Liao Chiung-fang, Overseas Chinese Fine Arts Series II: Chu Teh-chun, Artist Publishing Co., Taipei, January 1999, p. 56)

In their pursuit towards excellence and bringing forth of new ideas, many contemporary artists rely on assistance from external objects. Under the deep influence of Chinese culture, Chu Teh- chun did not chose the path of relying on assistance from external objects as he is a firm believer in Fan K'uan's statement, "I will rather not rely on external beings but turn to my inner most feelings" With this in mind, Chu Teh-chun opened new frontiers with his innermost aesthetic sense of judgment. Upon arriving in France, beside the amount of time Chu Teh-chun spent on reading the favorite article among French intellectual circle, "Le Monde"daily, another huge proportion of it was devoted to reading "Works of Tang Poetry"and "Works of Song Poetry" For many years, as his spirit wanders among Chinese classical poetry and prose seeking to make an appreciation of beauty a more joyful process, it often leads to igniting his inspiration, turning it into beautiful forms on paintings. Chu Teh-chun's love for Chinese poetry and Western classical music is also naturally embedded into his paintings and as Western commentators express that his works are poetic pieces of abstract art, its not a mere coincidence. In the "snow scenes"one cannot help but wonder if the artist was thinking of the magnificent winter scene described by Tang poet Li Po's in the bitter cold, the snow keeps falling like a giant hand smothering the snow-covered ground"or the flurry of activity in another poet Tu Fu's "under the low lying clouds, the snow flakes dance merrily in the wind."Imagine a scene of snow flakes floating gently from the sky and dancing in the cold wind, a breathtaking sight indeed.

In 1987, Chu Teh-chun completed a series of painting under the title "La for? blanche"and amongst the auction items this time is "La foret? blanche I" Wu Guanzhong, his long time friend since days of studying in Hangzhou National Academy of Art has his own interpretation about the artistic and poetic conception of white in Chu Teh-chun's snow scene. "Chu Teh-chun's representative large scale "La foret? blanche"is actually not depicting the snowy landscapes in the forest. With its free style brush strokes, pieces and dots being dimly visible, noises all around bouncing through space, sleek lines falling and forming into nets, it all nestles into a silverish grey world. Painting according to his whims and desires, the painter painted diversified, varied, surreal, dreams, happiness and anger looming......, this all equates to the luck and sorrow in one's life experience, a gauze that breaks through the innermost feelings, showcasing path and marks in the author's long artistic life. The white dots, which are neither flowers nor dew has pushed all life forms towards a far future and that far future is an endless forest. Its only upon completion of this work the he suddenly discovered the "forest"of his life. Chu Teh-chun's pursuit for the sonorous effect of a noble voice sees him using darker shades of colours such as dark green, Chinese red, bright yellow and also dark blue more frequently to create the stipulated effect. The resplendence and magnificence in Wang XiMeng's 'A Thousand Li of Rivers and mountains'has also been carried on and intensified in Chu's oil paintings. As he translates it into a language of contemporary design, it is a rival indeed to the Western arts."(Please refer to Zhu Wei, Chu Teh-chun Biography, HoKe Art, 1st Aug 2003, 1st Edition, pp. 225-226)

Such vivid description of Chu Teh-chun's artistic conception by Wu Guanzhong reveals that the main element to form this painting was "energy" As every painting forms the echo of an exercise, the beauty of its rhythm in this exercise blends in as one harmoniously amongst its colors as if "allowing one to view an unrestrained dance through a crystal without hearing its noise; in which its unrefined and uncontained strength melts in the silent beauty"The unrivalled beauty of "La foret? blanche I"is indeed like that of an unrestrained dance within the crystal but as quiet as the boundless galaxy of stars. Unlike other abstract artists, Chu Teh-chun personally names all his paintings as he believes that if he were to name his paintings according to its artistic conceptions, it won't cause an obstruction to the audience freely interpreting his portraits. "La foret? blanche I"possesses the grand beauty of the vastness and the cold freeze that the painter wants to express and with its title as a guide, its connotations are more profound and even more touching as he took care of the romantic expression of art itself and the freedom of imagination. As a Chinese abstract painter who seeks to integrate both poetry and painting, his painting possesses a spiritually refreshing concept which leaves the audience with a sense that their soul has undergone a thorough baptism.


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