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Lot Essay
In No. 97 (Lot 75), Chu Teh-Chun presents the multiple perspective composition as commonly seen in Chinese ink wash landscapes. He artfully constructs the pictorial plane with his vigorous upward and downward sweeps of lines, outlining in broad strokes the same kind of rocky, craggy mountain peaks and gnarled limbs that might appear in a painting. The surging, crisscrossing black lines, some heavy and dense, others slender and graceful, bring together the sophisticated layers and expansive splash of oil in this exuberant work. Chu's handling of the brush reveals signs of strong pressure that flattens the brush against the painting's surface. In each turn of the brush, in the uptake, continuation, turning, and completion of each stroke, Chu demonstrates the solid calligraphy skills he began acquiring in childhood and pursued all along his artistic life.
Chu's palette here is dominated by browns and reddish-browns in addition to its fundamental black tones. The deliberate choice to limit himself to such a basic palette is one sign of the artist's deep affinity with Chinese ink painting and calligraphy and his outstanding skills with those forms. Chu's contemporary artist Hans Hartung was deeply influenced by calligraphy and created forceful abstract compositions. As the Eastern concept of calligraphy evokes spirituality and the inner qualities of writing and drawing, Western modern artists, such as Hartung, viewed lines as the result of unconscious and automated movements shaping geometrical forms. Both artists participate to a renewal of lines in modern painting. Supported by his knowledge of Chinese calligraphic concept Chu Teh-Chun surpasses his Western contemporaries with a deep understanding of the spirituality of the black line. The choice of the unusual vertical format recalls the ancient Song Dynasty landscape paintings, usually mounted on scroll, a well-known inspiration to Chu Teh-Chun, thus reinforcing his well-assumed Chinese peculiarity in the Paris School environment.
With No. 97, Chu illustrates perfectly the definition of painting stated by Nicolas de Staël: 'A painting should be at one and the same time abstract and figurative. Abstract in so far that it is a wall surface and figurative in that it represents a space' , a pictorial space at once fully abstract and an accomplished reinterpretation of the majestic Song Dynasty landscapes.
Chu finds the ineffable poetry of the brush and ink techniques handed down through generations, and transforms it, in the Western medium of oil, into works of great freedom and vividness-works that stand side by side with the best created by Western practitioners of abstract art forms in the 20th century.
Chu's palette here is dominated by browns and reddish-browns in addition to its fundamental black tones. The deliberate choice to limit himself to such a basic palette is one sign of the artist's deep affinity with Chinese ink painting and calligraphy and his outstanding skills with those forms. Chu's contemporary artist Hans Hartung was deeply influenced by calligraphy and created forceful abstract compositions. As the Eastern concept of calligraphy evokes spirituality and the inner qualities of writing and drawing, Western modern artists, such as Hartung, viewed lines as the result of unconscious and automated movements shaping geometrical forms. Both artists participate to a renewal of lines in modern painting. Supported by his knowledge of Chinese calligraphic concept Chu Teh-Chun surpasses his Western contemporaries with a deep understanding of the spirituality of the black line. The choice of the unusual vertical format recalls the ancient Song Dynasty landscape paintings, usually mounted on scroll, a well-known inspiration to Chu Teh-Chun, thus reinforcing his well-assumed Chinese peculiarity in the Paris School environment.
With No. 97, Chu illustrates perfectly the definition of painting stated by Nicolas de Staël: 'A painting should be at one and the same time abstract and figurative. Abstract in so far that it is a wall surface and figurative in that it represents a space' , a pictorial space at once fully abstract and an accomplished reinterpretation of the majestic Song Dynasty landscapes.
Chu finds the ineffable poetry of the brush and ink techniques handed down through generations, and transforms it, in the Western medium of oil, into works of great freedom and vividness-works that stand side by side with the best created by Western practitioners of abstract art forms in the 20th century.