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拍品专文
La Plaine Repose (The Plain Rests) (Lot 111) perfectly embodies a duality often detected in Chu Teh-Chun's work. Confrontation is evident as the heavy horizontal reddish-browns contrast the eerie atmosphere of the light upper blue. The tension between light and dark, empty and full, earth and sky dissipates where brown becomes a buoyant red dissolving into short frenzied lines and vibrant colorful dots, flying away into the blue sky. The wide, earthy-dark lines of the blackish green brush strokes create the impression of organic soil releasing a lively, hazy activity, which quickly gives rise to a more serene, tinted lightness.
This painting evokes the Chinese philosophical concept of yin-yang, of binary forces completing - and thus enhancing - each other through the juxtaposition of distinct core features. Therefore the dark part, the yin, and the light blue section, the yang, together operate as an indivisible whole. In a video interview, Chu Teh-Chun elaborated on his belief that the act of painting forces the artist and the canvas to form one inseparable entity; this canvas acts in many ways as a visual metaphor of Chu Teh-Chun's practice.
The painting dates from 1990, the year closing a decade marked by the renewal of Chu Teh-Chun's ties with his homeland. He first travelled back to China in 1983 after 28 years abroad, when he was invited by The Chinese Union of Artists. He went to Taiwan four years later for his first major Asian retrospective at the Taipei national History Museum, and afterwards in regular trips. This context deeply influenced the already mature artist, who spoke of the renewal of the Chinese influence on his work, saying that "our ancestors left us with an inexhaustible cultural heritage, and as I've grown older, I can feel this 'China' coming out in me more than ever before".
Chinese culture and philosophy act as a major underlying counterpart to the Western influence in Chu Teh-Chun's work, and even more consciously so in his mature works. La Plaine Repose is a great example of Chu Teh-Chun's approach subtly incorporating Chinese philosophy into his own personal style as a crucial artistic principle. "Despite living abroad," he says, "what has always guided me in my behavior and relationship with others is the spirit of Chinese culture that I [internalized] when I was young."
This painting evokes the Chinese philosophical concept of yin-yang, of binary forces completing - and thus enhancing - each other through the juxtaposition of distinct core features. Therefore the dark part, the yin, and the light blue section, the yang, together operate as an indivisible whole. In a video interview, Chu Teh-Chun elaborated on his belief that the act of painting forces the artist and the canvas to form one inseparable entity; this canvas acts in many ways as a visual metaphor of Chu Teh-Chun's practice.
The painting dates from 1990, the year closing a decade marked by the renewal of Chu Teh-Chun's ties with his homeland. He first travelled back to China in 1983 after 28 years abroad, when he was invited by The Chinese Union of Artists. He went to Taiwan four years later for his first major Asian retrospective at the Taipei national History Museum, and afterwards in regular trips. This context deeply influenced the already mature artist, who spoke of the renewal of the Chinese influence on his work, saying that "our ancestors left us with an inexhaustible cultural heritage, and as I've grown older, I can feel this 'China' coming out in me more than ever before".
Chinese culture and philosophy act as a major underlying counterpart to the Western influence in Chu Teh-Chun's work, and even more consciously so in his mature works. La Plaine Repose is a great example of Chu Teh-Chun's approach subtly incorporating Chinese philosophy into his own personal style as a crucial artistic principle. "Despite living abroad," he says, "what has always guided me in my behavior and relationship with others is the spirit of Chinese culture that I [internalized] when I was young."