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Lot Essay
For the ancient literati painters of China, the act of painting or writing poetry meant so much more than blindly copying or reproducing scenery. They found a deep inner affinity in scenes that moved them, and through such scenes they strove to move others. Chu Teh-Chun understood the appeal of that approach, and he spoke with great feeling about how both poetry and painting follow 'the same principles and the same rhythms.' Clartés Bleues incisively reveals this artist's depth of feeling, his graceful, contemplative spirit, and the effortless, quiet elegance that informs his work.
Chu firmly believed that the beauty of nature, like music, was not best communicated in words — hence the beautiful, flowing colours of his paintings, their rich and varied layering, and the strong, balanced rhythms of his brushwork. All the scattered, disparate elements in a Chu Teh-Chun painting connect and join together in a grand harmony. In Clartés Bleues, one can even find a distant echo of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.14. Beethoven labeled that work 'like a fantasia,' and because music critic Ludwig Rellstab later exclaimed that it sounded 'like moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne,' the sonata soon became generally known as 'the Moonlight Sonata.' The single notes of the right-hand theme, clear and steady, fall above the mellow, leisurely chords of the left hand. In parallel with this manner, Chu's large-scale brushstrokes, vividly marked out near the center of the painting, instantly conjure up the outlines of a dark night. As with the a misty, meditative mood that emerges from Beethoven's C-sharp minor key with the piano's lightly-tapped pedal, the flowing, easy movement of Chu's brushstrokes at the sides of Clartés Bleues softens the severe darkness. Beethoven's melody occasionally shifts into the major key, letting moonlight flow in like a refreshing spring, just as in the center of Chu Teh-Chun's deep, dark night, short segments of yellow rose and crescent-moon white move and rebound, highlighting other hues half-hidden within them. The musical notes of the composition, connecting so closely to the lines and colours of the painting, show how Chu Teh-Chun injects into this work a sense of rhythm and harmonious movement. It becomes a charming fantasia, evoking the feel of moonlight assailing our senses in some remote and secret place.
In Clartés Bleues, Chu works within a Western abstract framework yet calls forth the confident, natural brushwork of the East, becoming one with the scene and with nature in this encounter with moonlight and flowing water. The feeling recalls Van Gogh, lingering along the banks of the Rhône as the moon and stars fill the sky, while a thousand dwellings cast their lights upon the river's surface. The sky's deep blue melds seamlessly with the clear waters, dissolving the boundaries between them in a deeply felt depiction. Chu Teh-Chun likewise takes his blue from nature, a mentally refreshing shade in which each of his brushstrokes shows subtle variations in tone while emanating a unique luster and depth of colour. By contrast with Van Gogh's short, fragmented lines, Chu's brushwork resembles more the cursive calligraphy he practiced for so many years, where thick and full-bodied strokes mix pleasingly with the light and lithe movement of finer strokes, perfectly conveying the play of light in this scene. Even as he employs Western painting techniques, Chu evokes a cultural ambience that is purely Chinese, achieving in the oil medium the same freedom and abandon as Chinese splashed-ink landscapes. Chu's brushstrokes accumulate, develop, and unfold on the canvas, growing into a unified, uninterrupted landscape of harmonious energy.
Chu Teh-Chun sought out the lingering traces of moonlight. Stepping into the moonlight, melting into it, he found in his life a clarity, insight, and simplicity like light itself. 'The breeze subsides, late in the night, as I return' … Chu Teh-Chun stood with Su Shi, with Beethoven, and with Van Gogh, seeing the same 'bright moon on the river,' linking with their spirits across the expanses of time, and like them, touching the river's 'jade green crystal.' The magic of eternal moonlight transports us, too, as we stand in front of Chu Teh-Chun's Clartés Bleues and share this faraway place together with those who came before.
Chu firmly believed that the beauty of nature, like music, was not best communicated in words — hence the beautiful, flowing colours of his paintings, their rich and varied layering, and the strong, balanced rhythms of his brushwork. All the scattered, disparate elements in a Chu Teh-Chun painting connect and join together in a grand harmony. In Clartés Bleues, one can even find a distant echo of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.14. Beethoven labeled that work 'like a fantasia,' and because music critic Ludwig Rellstab later exclaimed that it sounded 'like moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne,' the sonata soon became generally known as 'the Moonlight Sonata.' The single notes of the right-hand theme, clear and steady, fall above the mellow, leisurely chords of the left hand. In parallel with this manner, Chu's large-scale brushstrokes, vividly marked out near the center of the painting, instantly conjure up the outlines of a dark night. As with the a misty, meditative mood that emerges from Beethoven's C-sharp minor key with the piano's lightly-tapped pedal, the flowing, easy movement of Chu's brushstrokes at the sides of Clartés Bleues softens the severe darkness. Beethoven's melody occasionally shifts into the major key, letting moonlight flow in like a refreshing spring, just as in the center of Chu Teh-Chun's deep, dark night, short segments of yellow rose and crescent-moon white move and rebound, highlighting other hues half-hidden within them. The musical notes of the composition, connecting so closely to the lines and colours of the painting, show how Chu Teh-Chun injects into this work a sense of rhythm and harmonious movement. It becomes a charming fantasia, evoking the feel of moonlight assailing our senses in some remote and secret place.
In Clartés Bleues, Chu works within a Western abstract framework yet calls forth the confident, natural brushwork of the East, becoming one with the scene and with nature in this encounter with moonlight and flowing water. The feeling recalls Van Gogh, lingering along the banks of the Rhône as the moon and stars fill the sky, while a thousand dwellings cast their lights upon the river's surface. The sky's deep blue melds seamlessly with the clear waters, dissolving the boundaries between them in a deeply felt depiction. Chu Teh-Chun likewise takes his blue from nature, a mentally refreshing shade in which each of his brushstrokes shows subtle variations in tone while emanating a unique luster and depth of colour. By contrast with Van Gogh's short, fragmented lines, Chu's brushwork resembles more the cursive calligraphy he practiced for so many years, where thick and full-bodied strokes mix pleasingly with the light and lithe movement of finer strokes, perfectly conveying the play of light in this scene. Even as he employs Western painting techniques, Chu evokes a cultural ambience that is purely Chinese, achieving in the oil medium the same freedom and abandon as Chinese splashed-ink landscapes. Chu's brushstrokes accumulate, develop, and unfold on the canvas, growing into a unified, uninterrupted landscape of harmonious energy.
Chu Teh-Chun sought out the lingering traces of moonlight. Stepping into the moonlight, melting into it, he found in his life a clarity, insight, and simplicity like light itself. 'The breeze subsides, late in the night, as I return' … Chu Teh-Chun stood with Su Shi, with Beethoven, and with Van Gogh, seeing the same 'bright moon on the river,' linking with their spirits across the expanses of time, and like them, touching the river's 'jade green crystal.' The magic of eternal moonlight transports us, too, as we stand in front of Chu Teh-Chun's Clartés Bleues and share this faraway place together with those who came before.