- 111
Chu Teh-Chun (Zhu Dequn)
Estimate
8,000,000 - 12,000,000 HKD
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Description
- Chu Teh-Chun
- Composition No. 75
- oil on canvas
signed in Chinese and Pinyin; signed in Chinese and Pinyin, titled and dated 1961 on the reverse
Provenance
SCP Loudmer, Paris, 10 June, 1990, lot 160
Private European Collection
Christie's, Paris, 31 May, 2012, lot 9
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale
Private European Collection
Christie's, Paris, 31 May, 2012, lot 9
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale
Exhibited
Paris, Galerie Henriette Legendre, Chu Teh-Chun, 1962
Paris, Galerie Arlette Gimaray, Chu Teh-Chun, 1989
Paris, Galerie Arlette Gimaray, Chu Teh-Chun, 1989
Condition
This work is in good condition. One can see some minor craquelure scattered across the canvas, only visible under close examination, as well as handling marks along four edges. Under UV light, there is evidence of scattered minor retouching along the top edge and another 3-cm long retouching in the lower left quadrant, 30 cm to the left and 7 cm to the bottom.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
Chu Teh-Chun’s Majestic and Expansive Masterpiece from the 1960s: Composition No. 75
Born into a medical family in 1920, Chu Teh-Chun grew up in an environment filled with artistic inspirations. His father and elder family members collected rare books and paintings. Under his father’s guidance, Chu practiced Chinese calligraphy, closely studying and emulating the works by ancient calligraphy masters. As a young adult, he entered Hangzhou School of Fine Arts, renowned for its liberal spirit and a unique approach that integrated artistic influences from both the East and the West. Under the tutelage of Pan Tianshou and Wu Dayu, Chu developed a solid foundation in Chinese ink painting and Realistic oil painting, in addition to acquiring the rudiments of Modernism from the West. The young artist was also inspired to pursue further education in Paris, the artistic capital where his teachers studied in their youth. His wish came true in 1955. With dedicated hard work and exceptional talents, Chu Teh-Chun gradually won a place amongst the iconic artists of the post-war Lyrical Abstraction movement. His unique personal style earned him acclaims from Western art critics such as Lydia Harambourg: “Western artists merely paint the scenery, whilst Eastern artists become one with the universe. In Chu Teh-Chun’s paintings, the form drawn out before the light and his quiet contemplation on colours are fused with the universe into an organic whole. After more than half a century of creative activities in Paris, he is unequivocally a master painter of the 20th century.”
An impressive debut
When Chu first arrived in France, he first went through a three-year period of exploration and introspection. He studied works by Paul Cézanne and Nicolas de Staël, two artists who greatly influenced Chu’s creative development. Cézanne showed him new ways to observe nature, simplifying the complex external environment into cylinders, cones and spheres. de Staël inspired Chu to free himself from the constraints of realistic portrayal, and to transform intricate emotions into abstract lines and curves. Chu Teh-Chun reinvented his artistic approach and emerged from the French art scene in 1958 as a promising virtuoso painter.
The first galleries drawn to his paintings were the Parisian Galerie du Haut-Pavé and Galerie Henriette Legendre, the latter managed by Maurice Panier. With a pioneering vision, Panier discovered outstanding artists such as Wassily Kendinsky, Alberto Magnelli and Nicolas de Staël, for whom he held many successful exhibitions at the gallery. Panier saw a continuation of the Abstractionist movement in Chu’s paintings, in which the sky and the water, two vital sources of life, rise and roam free on canvas. His paintings do not employ the classical perspective commonly found in Western art, but instead a space of multiple dimensions. Panier was extremely impressed with such an approach. Following the exhibition at Galerie du Haut-Pavé, Panier held many solo exhibitions for Chu Teh-Chun, and signed a six-year contract with the artist. This firmly established the foundation for his future development in the Parisian art circle, and provided an important platform for exchange between the artist and collectors worldwide. Through these opportunities, Chu also befriended a group of artists, and the connections facilitated his integration into the core of Paris’ artistic melting pot. Composition No. 75 (Lot 111) was in fact first seen publicly in a solo exhibition at Galerie Henriette Legendre in 1962, adding special significance to this representative piece of the artist’s early creative success.
Brushworks that travel between East and West; vitality created through integration
In Composition No. 75, Chu Teh-Chun uses dark greenish yellow and bluish green as the base, onto which he then applies varying shades of substantial ink-black colours in the center of the image. Lines of varying thickness and weight run through the picture, forming a vast and majestic abstract composition that is highly structural and full of vitality. From the thick, bold lines, the viewer senses the impressive vigor contrasting with the fluid elegance in the artist’s brushstrokes. The greatly varied and flexible composition of these lines, in conjunction with the painting’s rich colours, create an exciting range of movements; the artist employs Eastern calligraphy techniques, such as leaning, tilting, pausing, resting, outlining and shaping, using oil paint, maneuvering confidently across the canvas in all directions, like a spirited and stirring symphony. Inside the dark and secretive space, clashing rhythms unleash multiple layers of energy, whilst gemstone-like sky blue, dark navy and brick red colours set the mysterious forest ablaze, igniting the painting’s vital spirit. This not only serves as a visual reference for the viewer to find the artistic points of interests, but also creates a greater sense of visual layering. Within this space, the weighted and the nimble form an exciting contrast, as the lines pulsate, contract and expand, the space stretches and relaxes in the multiplicity; the viewer can almost hear the breathing of this rhythm and the lingering sound echoing from the empty valley.
Capturing the internal essence beyond physical forms
This work displays a strong sense of cohesion within the space. Having discarded the Western one-point perspective, it incorporates the ancient aesthetic traditions of the East to reveal a unique world which, in the words of French art critic Pierre Cabanne, is a universe “not far, but not near, and without perspective. It is an abyss, it is the gasping of time, it is a dynamic poem, its form appears to come from a highly focused spirit, determined to meet the viewer directly in the eyes. The artist does not know what stillness is, everything on him is in a moving state, like a Chinese landscape painting portraying a scene in the natural environment, the force of life moves the trees, hews open the mountains, floods the river, as the sunny sky makes all things converge into one tranquil whole. In Chu Teh-Chun’s painting, depth floats onto the surface and the contrary moves towards unity.”
The artist has not specified his subject of painting, but instead gave an abstract portrayal based on his observation of the universe and nature, infusing with it his expansive internal vision and sentiment. The dark and distant green colour and the enigmatic conception remind the viewer of Wang Wei’s poem Hua Yue (The Grand Mountain), in which the renowned Tang dynasty poet wrote of “the majestic mountain of Hua Shan sitting above the drifting cloud, where the green trees and plants gather high up in the sky. The green and black colours of the mountains seem to be frozen and connected to the firmament, one can see it joining the sky even from hundreds of miles away. It was said that when the universe was still an enclosed, unopened whole, this was the ancient site where Heaven created mythical creatures and gods.” In this painting, Chu Teh-Chun presented to us an open and expansive world as well as a pure and condensed spiritual domain, waiting for the viewer to offer his/her own interpretation to unlock the mystery.
Born into a medical family in 1920, Chu Teh-Chun grew up in an environment filled with artistic inspirations. His father and elder family members collected rare books and paintings. Under his father’s guidance, Chu practiced Chinese calligraphy, closely studying and emulating the works by ancient calligraphy masters. As a young adult, he entered Hangzhou School of Fine Arts, renowned for its liberal spirit and a unique approach that integrated artistic influences from both the East and the West. Under the tutelage of Pan Tianshou and Wu Dayu, Chu developed a solid foundation in Chinese ink painting and Realistic oil painting, in addition to acquiring the rudiments of Modernism from the West. The young artist was also inspired to pursue further education in Paris, the artistic capital where his teachers studied in their youth. His wish came true in 1955. With dedicated hard work and exceptional talents, Chu Teh-Chun gradually won a place amongst the iconic artists of the post-war Lyrical Abstraction movement. His unique personal style earned him acclaims from Western art critics such as Lydia Harambourg: “Western artists merely paint the scenery, whilst Eastern artists become one with the universe. In Chu Teh-Chun’s paintings, the form drawn out before the light and his quiet contemplation on colours are fused with the universe into an organic whole. After more than half a century of creative activities in Paris, he is unequivocally a master painter of the 20th century.”
An impressive debut
When Chu first arrived in France, he first went through a three-year period of exploration and introspection. He studied works by Paul Cézanne and Nicolas de Staël, two artists who greatly influenced Chu’s creative development. Cézanne showed him new ways to observe nature, simplifying the complex external environment into cylinders, cones and spheres. de Staël inspired Chu to free himself from the constraints of realistic portrayal, and to transform intricate emotions into abstract lines and curves. Chu Teh-Chun reinvented his artistic approach and emerged from the French art scene in 1958 as a promising virtuoso painter.
The first galleries drawn to his paintings were the Parisian Galerie du Haut-Pavé and Galerie Henriette Legendre, the latter managed by Maurice Panier. With a pioneering vision, Panier discovered outstanding artists such as Wassily Kendinsky, Alberto Magnelli and Nicolas de Staël, for whom he held many successful exhibitions at the gallery. Panier saw a continuation of the Abstractionist movement in Chu’s paintings, in which the sky and the water, two vital sources of life, rise and roam free on canvas. His paintings do not employ the classical perspective commonly found in Western art, but instead a space of multiple dimensions. Panier was extremely impressed with such an approach. Following the exhibition at Galerie du Haut-Pavé, Panier held many solo exhibitions for Chu Teh-Chun, and signed a six-year contract with the artist. This firmly established the foundation for his future development in the Parisian art circle, and provided an important platform for exchange between the artist and collectors worldwide. Through these opportunities, Chu also befriended a group of artists, and the connections facilitated his integration into the core of Paris’ artistic melting pot. Composition No. 75 (Lot 111) was in fact first seen publicly in a solo exhibition at Galerie Henriette Legendre in 1962, adding special significance to this representative piece of the artist’s early creative success.
Brushworks that travel between East and West; vitality created through integration
In Composition No. 75, Chu Teh-Chun uses dark greenish yellow and bluish green as the base, onto which he then applies varying shades of substantial ink-black colours in the center of the image. Lines of varying thickness and weight run through the picture, forming a vast and majestic abstract composition that is highly structural and full of vitality. From the thick, bold lines, the viewer senses the impressive vigor contrasting with the fluid elegance in the artist’s brushstrokes. The greatly varied and flexible composition of these lines, in conjunction with the painting’s rich colours, create an exciting range of movements; the artist employs Eastern calligraphy techniques, such as leaning, tilting, pausing, resting, outlining and shaping, using oil paint, maneuvering confidently across the canvas in all directions, like a spirited and stirring symphony. Inside the dark and secretive space, clashing rhythms unleash multiple layers of energy, whilst gemstone-like sky blue, dark navy and brick red colours set the mysterious forest ablaze, igniting the painting’s vital spirit. This not only serves as a visual reference for the viewer to find the artistic points of interests, but also creates a greater sense of visual layering. Within this space, the weighted and the nimble form an exciting contrast, as the lines pulsate, contract and expand, the space stretches and relaxes in the multiplicity; the viewer can almost hear the breathing of this rhythm and the lingering sound echoing from the empty valley.
Capturing the internal essence beyond physical forms
This work displays a strong sense of cohesion within the space. Having discarded the Western one-point perspective, it incorporates the ancient aesthetic traditions of the East to reveal a unique world which, in the words of French art critic Pierre Cabanne, is a universe “not far, but not near, and without perspective. It is an abyss, it is the gasping of time, it is a dynamic poem, its form appears to come from a highly focused spirit, determined to meet the viewer directly in the eyes. The artist does not know what stillness is, everything on him is in a moving state, like a Chinese landscape painting portraying a scene in the natural environment, the force of life moves the trees, hews open the mountains, floods the river, as the sunny sky makes all things converge into one tranquil whole. In Chu Teh-Chun’s painting, depth floats onto the surface and the contrary moves towards unity.”
The artist has not specified his subject of painting, but instead gave an abstract portrayal based on his observation of the universe and nature, infusing with it his expansive internal vision and sentiment. The dark and distant green colour and the enigmatic conception remind the viewer of Wang Wei’s poem Hua Yue (The Grand Mountain), in which the renowned Tang dynasty poet wrote of “the majestic mountain of Hua Shan sitting above the drifting cloud, where the green trees and plants gather high up in the sky. The green and black colours of the mountains seem to be frozen and connected to the firmament, one can see it joining the sky even from hundreds of miles away. It was said that when the universe was still an enclosed, unopened whole, this was the ancient site where Heaven created mythical creatures and gods.” In this painting, Chu Teh-Chun presented to us an open and expansive world as well as a pure and condensed spiritual domain, waiting for the viewer to offer his/her own interpretation to unlock the mystery.