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Lot Essay
In the words of Jean-Clarence Lambert, le 7.9.1976 (Lot 106) offers a wonderful example of "the painter of fire, -of air and fire, with something incomprehensible pertaining to the particular mystery that makes Chu Teh-Chun a unique figure within the School of Paris".
By 1970, Chu Teh-Chun had been living in France for 15 years, mastering abstraction through a unique, intuitive approach which encompasses all at once the thorough studies of Cézanne, the spirited impetus of Nicolas de Staël, and the philosophy of Song Dynasty landscape painting. A visit at the 300-year retrospective exhibition of Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam struck the Chinese artist with a new source of inspiration on his quest into the abstract language. Through the Dutch painter, Chu Teh-Chun discovered the masterful use of light that the Renaissance artists invented as chiaroscuro, one of the pillars of European art history since the sixteenth century. After observing Rembrandt masterpieces for hours, Chu Teh-Chun decided to incorporate the technique of dramatic contrasts between light and dark into his own compositions, utilizing this Western artistic milestone to enrich his ancestral Eastern heritage.
At the crossroad of time and cultural references, Chu Teh-Chun arrived at the ultimate form of chiaroscuro - freed from figuration - a powerful device that suggested a great sense of mystery and a renewed psychological depth. Le 7.9.1976 delivers a complex composition; an incandescent chrome yellow light flickering in the darkness of warm brown and buoyant red, coated with warm dots and blocks. The rhythmic paints on the canvas translate perfectly the fragility of this timeless, vibrant flurry. Moreover the modulation of the oil's density and texture adds visual depth to the canvas. In the catalogue of the artist's 2013 Paris retrospective, Pierre Cabanne declared that "a painting by Chu Teh-Chun has neither origin nor completion, but relies on the intensity of its own fatality." In this work, Chu transformed his intuitive and poetic art into an undefined universal time and a fathomless space.
The masterful treatment of light in le 7.9.1976 recalls the ancient Western craftsmanship of stained glass, a technique consisting of colouring glass cuts, thus creating vast compositions applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches since the Middle Ages. This process allows the passage of daylight through coloured glass, creating a mosaic of the most luminescent colours, a rendering that Chu Teh-Chun skilfully simulated with oil paint. In Western classical art, the stained glass technique and the chiaroscuro effect in painting often give the use of light a supernatural quality, a divine message. This reference echoes the superior forces invoked by the classical Chinese painter when working in communion with nature. Chu's style transforms solid forms into evanescence; the invisible force and elements hidden in nature remain his source of inspiration, and the reflection of light on the canvas testifies to a spirituality of such senses.
This work offers many clues on how Chu Teh-Chun nourishes his art both in technique and in spirit with sources of inspiration from Western classical art, resulting in a unique approach rich in both Eastern and Western cultural elements.
By 1970, Chu Teh-Chun had been living in France for 15 years, mastering abstraction through a unique, intuitive approach which encompasses all at once the thorough studies of Cézanne, the spirited impetus of Nicolas de Staël, and the philosophy of Song Dynasty landscape painting. A visit at the 300-year retrospective exhibition of Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam struck the Chinese artist with a new source of inspiration on his quest into the abstract language. Through the Dutch painter, Chu Teh-Chun discovered the masterful use of light that the Renaissance artists invented as chiaroscuro, one of the pillars of European art history since the sixteenth century. After observing Rembrandt masterpieces for hours, Chu Teh-Chun decided to incorporate the technique of dramatic contrasts between light and dark into his own compositions, utilizing this Western artistic milestone to enrich his ancestral Eastern heritage.
At the crossroad of time and cultural references, Chu Teh-Chun arrived at the ultimate form of chiaroscuro - freed from figuration - a powerful device that suggested a great sense of mystery and a renewed psychological depth. Le 7.9.1976 delivers a complex composition; an incandescent chrome yellow light flickering in the darkness of warm brown and buoyant red, coated with warm dots and blocks. The rhythmic paints on the canvas translate perfectly the fragility of this timeless, vibrant flurry. Moreover the modulation of the oil's density and texture adds visual depth to the canvas. In the catalogue of the artist's 2013 Paris retrospective, Pierre Cabanne declared that "a painting by Chu Teh-Chun has neither origin nor completion, but relies on the intensity of its own fatality." In this work, Chu transformed his intuitive and poetic art into an undefined universal time and a fathomless space.
The masterful treatment of light in le 7.9.1976 recalls the ancient Western craftsmanship of stained glass, a technique consisting of colouring glass cuts, thus creating vast compositions applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches since the Middle Ages. This process allows the passage of daylight through coloured glass, creating a mosaic of the most luminescent colours, a rendering that Chu Teh-Chun skilfully simulated with oil paint. In Western classical art, the stained glass technique and the chiaroscuro effect in painting often give the use of light a supernatural quality, a divine message. This reference echoes the superior forces invoked by the classical Chinese painter when working in communion with nature. Chu's style transforms solid forms into evanescence; the invisible force and elements hidden in nature remain his source of inspiration, and the reflection of light on the canvas testifies to a spirituality of such senses.
This work offers many clues on how Chu Teh-Chun nourishes his art both in technique and in spirit with sources of inspiration from Western classical art, resulting in a unique approach rich in both Eastern and Western cultural elements.