ZHONG CHENG

  • Zhong Cheng 2024 Spring Auction「Modern And Contemporary Art」
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    CHU TEHCHUN (1920-2014 )

    No. 534

    1974

    Oil on Canvas
    100 x 73 cm

    Signed Chu Tehchun in Chinese and English Signed on the reverse: Chu Tehchun in English and Chinese, titled No. 534, dated 1974

    Estimate TWD 7,000,000-12,000,000
    USD 217,500-372,800
    HKD 0-0

    Hammer Price TWD 10,200,000
    USD 319,299
    HKD 2,558,956

With a certificate of authenticity from Chu Teh-Chun Foundation

Provenance：1. Private collection of Madame Arlette de Crouse, France 2. Private collection, European

Illustrated：

Exhibition："Chu Teh-Chun. Peinture récentes," Galerie Soleil, Paris, France, May 29th - June 29th, 1974

Exposition：This work has been certified by the Chu Teh-Chun Foundation and will be included in the Chu Teh-Chun Foundation\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s archive.

"Although I once lived abroad, it is the spirit of Chinese culture that guides my behavior and interactions, absorbed during my youth." --- Chu Teh-Chun

In 1955, at the age of thirty-four, Chu Teh-Chun left his hometown and set aside the artistic reputation he had already established to further his studies in the forefront of the era, Paris. Chu Teh-Chun arrived in Paris during the later period dominated by the trend of Expressionism, where French Art Informel and American Abstract Expressionism became global art movements. Abstract painting had already undergone more than forty years of development, from the fervent abstraction of Wassily Kandinsky and the cold abstraction of Piet Mondrian to the eclectic abstraction of Willem de Kooning and the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich, culminating in the peak of "lyrical" abstract expressionism at that time. However, all of this was unfamiliar to Chu Teh-Chun at the time. Facing this artistic atmosphere that was fundamentally different from Chinese tradition, he was greatly excited and felt the immense difference between Eastern and Western art. After some exploration and searching, Chu Teh-Chun quickly immersed himself in this surging tide.

In May 1956, the one-year retrospective exhibition of Nicolas de Staël, who passed away in Paris, became an important turning point in Chu Teh-Chun's artistic journey. Chu Teh-Chun was deeply impressed by Staël's acute sense of painting, his freely expressive attitude towards painting, the rich and transparent changes in his paintings, and the wild imagination in his later works. Facing his works, Chu Teh-Chun suddenly enlightened about what "abstraction" truly meant after coming to Paris. Chu Teh-Chun once said, "This is the best modern art exhibition I have seen since coming to Paris. I was deeply moved." Staël made Chu Teh-Chun realize the value of a free attitude in painting, but achieving this "free and uninhibited" state was extremely difficult. Only when freedom is balanced and does not lose its essence can one reach the spiritual realm pursued in art. Although Chu Teh-Chun never met Staël, this "spiritual encounter" with his works deeply inspired Chu Teh-Chun, unleashing the energy that had long been accumulated in his heart and strengthening his determination to transition from figurative style to abstraction, decisively breaking free from the constraints of objects and immersing himself in the exploration of abstract art.

Until 1959, Chu Teh-Chun's creative career in Paris gradually stabilized. He moved from a hotel to an apartment on Rue de Meaux in the 20th arrondissement, and his artistic creation entered a new peak, with his Composition Series maturing at this time. In the 1970s, the artist Chu Teh-Chun was impacted by the Rembrandt 300th Anniversary Memorial Exhibition held in the Netherlands, and his painting style began to change. Inspired by Rembrandt, he entered a phase of hidden brilliance, exploring the manifestation of light sources in the subtle and multi-layered darkness, possessing a highly spiritual and poetic temperament.

Rembrandt was a master of light, and his painting technique of "Chiaroscuro" brought a sense of mystery, drama, and spatial depth to the light sources in the painting. Composition No. 534 inherits the stylistic characteristics of the Dutch Golden Age master Rembrandt, ingeniously using "light" to narrate a stage effect full of lyrical poetry. It is precisely this "sacred light source" that fills his works with a "cosmic" atmosphere different from others.

Former French Minister of Culture Jacques Lang believes that the works of artist Chu Teh-Chun convey a sense of "being the only master in the universe." When painting, Chu Teh-Chun is accustomed to listening to symphonies and naturally incorporates the rhythm of music into his paintings. He often says that in the process of painting, he is actually "listening to the celestial music of the universe." Observing his compositions, one feels as if gazing at the universe waiting to be unfolded, bringing a broad and macroscopic aesthetic experience. His strokes are bold and concise, the imagery vivid and delicate, exuding a strong artistic appeal, elevating the viewer's spiritual state.

The "cosmic view" depicted by artist Chu Teh-Chun is not only "Western cosmology" but also "Eastern cosmology." "Yin and yang are the Tao," and "Tao" is the origin of the world. What artist Chu Teh-Chun demonstrates through the splendor of art is the expression of internal Zen-like meditation on the "Tao" through "written painting," rich in implications of both Eastern and Western artists and philosophical views. This allows people to feel solemnity and grandeur.

This work, "Composition No. 534," symbolizes the initial inspiration that the artist experienced after encountering the collision of Chinese and Western cultures in a foreign land, presenting the vigorous and passionate creativity of his prime, as well as the slightly bitter high spirituality due to contemplation and change. Deeply experiencing the "coincidence" between the infinite abstraction of ink painting and lyrical abstraction, he attempted to create abstract paintings using the techniques of Shitao's painting of shallow water and grass. The casual black lines and the dry-brushed gray and white effects present the charm of ink writing. This can be said to be the seed planted by Chu Teh-Chun during his sketching of the mountains and clouds of Mount Baxian and the Bird's Paradise waterfall in Taiwan. The deep-rooted Chinese genes flowing in his blood (early memories, studying calligraphy from childhood, Tang and Song poetry, and the cosmic view of Chinese landscape painting) constantly stimulate his inspiration. His profound Chinese cultural accumulation makes him more consciously use Western eyes to express Eastern wisdom, ultimately allowing his art to stand out in the wave of formlessism in Paris. In Composition No. 534, we seem to feel Chu Teh-Chun's integration of the beauty of the winter scenery of Paris and the mountains and forests of Mount Baxian and the Bird's Paradise waterfall in his memory. Under the black ink, the subtle dark red and brown-yellow emerge between the gray-brown and elegant milky-white, through the artist's vigorous and flowing strokes, the layered warm and cold tones swirl and gallop on the canvas, various forms interweave and dance, resembling the fluctuation of water vapor when a canyon stream brushes against the stone wall; it also resembles the winter night in Paris, with the cold buildings on both sides overlapping, emitting a faint yellow halo, with the street extending from the center of the painting to the distance, meandering into a long and desolate mist.

The expression of light in the painting differs from the broad strokes and smudges of later works, instead delicately arranging block-like structures, focusing more on the interweaving of points, lines, and surfaces. It can be seen that Chu Teh-Chun's research on the expression of light before the large-scale painting was fruitful. The lyrical and profound atmosphere depicted by his heavy calligraphic strokes creates a mysterious feeling of interplay between reality and illusion in Composition No. 534, and this compact structure and deep mysterious atmosphere are precisely where the spiritual essence of Chu Teh-Chun's early art lies, highlighting the rare academic significance of this work. This richly varied, sharply contrasting, and finely arranged lyrical abstraction marks Chu Teh-Chun's moving symphony after deeply experiencing the collision.

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