CHU TEH-CHUN (ZHU DEQUN, 1920-2014)
PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED ASIAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
CHU TEH-CHUN (ZHU DEQUN, 1920-2014)

L'Imprévu (The Unexpected)

Details
CHU TEH-CHUN (ZHU DEQUN, 1920-2014)
L'Imprévu (The Unexpected)
signed in Chinese, signed and dated ‘Chu Teh-Chun. 93.’ (lower right); signed in Chinese, signed, dated and titled ‘L’Imprévu 1993 CHU TEH-CHUN’ (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
73 x 90 cm. (28 3/4 x 35 3/8 in.)
Painted in 1993
Provenance
Anon. Sale, Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 May 2005, lot 311
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
The authenticity of the artwork has been confirmed by Fondation Chu Teh-Chun, Geneva. A certificate of authenticity can be requested by the successful buyer.
Literature
Dimension Art Center, Chu Teh-Chun, exh. cat., Taipei, Taiwan, 1993 (illustrated, unpaged).
Pierre Cabanne (ed.), Cercle d'Art, Chu The-Chun, Paris, France, 1994 (illustrated, p 183).
Liao Chiung-Fang, Artist Publishing Co., Chu Teh-Chun, Taipei, Taiwan, 1999 ((illustrated, plate 197, p. 256).
The Ueno Royal Museum & Thin Chang Corporation, Solo Exhibition of Chu Teh-Chun, exh. cat., Taipei, Taiwan, 2007 (illustrated, p. 262).
Exhibited
Taipei, Taiwan, Dimension Art Center, Chu Teh-Chun, December 1993 – January 1994.
Tokyo, Japan, The Ueno Royal Museum, Solo Exhibition of Chu Teh-Chun, June- July 2007.

Brought to you by

Dexter How (陶啟勇)
Dexter How (陶啟勇) Vice President, Senior Specialist

Lot Essay

“Blue is the most spirited colour in nature, it is filled with poetic subtlety as well as all-encompassing amiability, blue belongs to all life, and the earliest life was born from blue – in the ancient oceans.” – Chu Teh-Chun

In 1990, Chu Teh-Chun moved to a large studio in Vitry-sur-Seine, just outside of Paris. This high-ceiling studio surrounded by large windows exploited natural day light as main source of lighting, and thus encouraged him to further explore and perfect his artistic language through colour and lighting. In order to capture such fast-changing and fluid light, Chu created a translucent paint that rendered an ethereal brushstroke, particularly tangible in L'Imprévu (The Unexpected). Here, a multitude of strokes emerge from a central core, with different pace, intensity and thickness.

Such suggestion of movement and light through colour and abstraction can be traced by to his discovery of Nicolas de Staël in1956. Chu then realised he could express the essence of his inner vision through abstract blocks of colour, which eventually led him to fully transition to abstraction.

The early 1990s were marked by difficult times, in particular the Gulf War, which deeply affected the painter. His work from this period varies from darkness to brightness, and L'Imprévu (The Unexpected) can be interpreted as a message of hope, where brightness, clarity and balance suddenly push darkness away and take over the composition to create a powerful bursting of energy and controlled tension.

More from Modern and Contemporary Art Day Sale

View All
View All