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Lot Essay
"In his contact with the ceramics material, Chu The-Chun managed to unite the earth, paint and fire."
(Francis Delille in the Exhibition Catalogue, Chu Teh-Chun Céramiques, Galerie de La Bouquinerie de l'Institut, March 2003)
Chu Teh-Chun's abstraction is not the abstraction of symbol or motif, but a lyrical abstraction that radiates the pure feeling of the artist. One can easily imagine mountain landscapes, waterfalls, and gushing springs in the free, evocative spaces of his paintings. The viewer is in communication with the artist, but even more, with nature and the universe. Chu's works have the flow of living energy found in the best of Chinese painting and the appeal of the landscape. Calligraphic lines undergo abstraction, and semi-transparent blocks of colour are woven into complex, overlapping structures that convey the limitless space of a Chinese landscape painting. Chu Teh-Chun once acknowledged classical Chinese landscapes as an influence; in particular, he admired the 10th-century painter Fan Kuan and the imposing, poetic atmosphere of his work. The essential feeling of such landscapes is reinterpreted in Chu's work: his modern, abstract works are bridges that reach out to the world where the spirit of the ancient Chinese landscape resides.
In 2002, at the height of his international recognition and artistic maturity, Chu Teh-Chun began working on a new series of painted ceramics, a medium that he first experienced in the in Taiwan in the 1980s. It took the artist a couple of trials before feeling completely at ease with the ultimate Asian medium, universally considered the most significant form of Chinese art. After an experimental phase, the artist found a new mode of creative production and totally immersed himself into the medium, embracing his ancestors' art, thus writing a new chapter in the history of Chinese Ceramics. In March 2003 his ceramics were met with great success at their first exhibition at the Parisian Galerie de la Bouquinerie de l'Institut, which motivated the artist to create a second series in 2005 in partnership with the same producer, La Tuilerie. With ceramic as a medium, Chu allows the free-flow of his creative spirit to ebb forth, utilizing the pale white of the ceramic as a foundation upon which to merge colour tones create the bursts of vivid colour that typify his works. The pure materials, noble forms, and enchanting motifs are largely inspired by Far Eastern aesthetics. The subtle relationship between art and nature is fully explored here, in ways similar to traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy. He tames the medium to the fullest encompassing all at once balance, power and writing, transferring his knowledge of composition on the two dimensional canvas into the new rounded and vase formats. Under Chu Teh-Chun's hand, the applied art becomes a pure form of Art, transcending its decorative and utilitarian purposes, each ceramic keeping a close tie to painting and conveying a consistent vision of his inner chaotic world.
Expressing an evident Asian aesthetic, Chu Teh-Chun's ceramics also enter a European lineage of major Modern artists who detected the same need to translate their original painterly creativity into ceramics, namely Picasso, Gauguin, Léger, Chagall, Miró, Tapiès, and his Chinese counterpart Zao Wou-Ki each in a unique approach.
Christie's is pleased to present this season two examples of Chu Teh-Chun's ceramic practice, encompassing the Eastern most ancient History and the artist's full dexterity acquired by the 2000s, worthy of the most praised European Modern painters.
(Francis Delille in the Exhibition Catalogue, Chu Teh-Chun Céramiques, Galerie de La Bouquinerie de l'Institut, March 2003)
Chu Teh-Chun's abstraction is not the abstraction of symbol or motif, but a lyrical abstraction that radiates the pure feeling of the artist. One can easily imagine mountain landscapes, waterfalls, and gushing springs in the free, evocative spaces of his paintings. The viewer is in communication with the artist, but even more, with nature and the universe. Chu's works have the flow of living energy found in the best of Chinese painting and the appeal of the landscape. Calligraphic lines undergo abstraction, and semi-transparent blocks of colour are woven into complex, overlapping structures that convey the limitless space of a Chinese landscape painting. Chu Teh-Chun once acknowledged classical Chinese landscapes as an influence; in particular, he admired the 10th-century painter Fan Kuan and the imposing, poetic atmosphere of his work. The essential feeling of such landscapes is reinterpreted in Chu's work: his modern, abstract works are bridges that reach out to the world where the spirit of the ancient Chinese landscape resides.
In 2002, at the height of his international recognition and artistic maturity, Chu Teh-Chun began working on a new series of painted ceramics, a medium that he first experienced in the in Taiwan in the 1980s. It took the artist a couple of trials before feeling completely at ease with the ultimate Asian medium, universally considered the most significant form of Chinese art. After an experimental phase, the artist found a new mode of creative production and totally immersed himself into the medium, embracing his ancestors' art, thus writing a new chapter in the history of Chinese Ceramics. In March 2003 his ceramics were met with great success at their first exhibition at the Parisian Galerie de la Bouquinerie de l'Institut, which motivated the artist to create a second series in 2005 in partnership with the same producer, La Tuilerie. With ceramic as a medium, Chu allows the free-flow of his creative spirit to ebb forth, utilizing the pale white of the ceramic as a foundation upon which to merge colour tones create the bursts of vivid colour that typify his works. The pure materials, noble forms, and enchanting motifs are largely inspired by Far Eastern aesthetics. The subtle relationship between art and nature is fully explored here, in ways similar to traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy. He tames the medium to the fullest encompassing all at once balance, power and writing, transferring his knowledge of composition on the two dimensional canvas into the new rounded and vase formats. Under Chu Teh-Chun's hand, the applied art becomes a pure form of Art, transcending its decorative and utilitarian purposes, each ceramic keeping a close tie to painting and conveying a consistent vision of his inner chaotic world.
Expressing an evident Asian aesthetic, Chu Teh-Chun's ceramics also enter a European lineage of major Modern artists who detected the same need to translate their original painterly creativity into ceramics, namely Picasso, Gauguin, Léger, Chagall, Miró, Tapiès, and his Chinese counterpart Zao Wou-Ki each in a unique approach.
Christie's is pleased to present this season two examples of Chu Teh-Chun's ceramic practice, encompassing the Eastern most ancient History and the artist's full dexterity acquired by the 2000s, worthy of the most praised European Modern painters.