This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Atelier Chu Teh-Chun and signed by Mrs. Ching-Chao Chu, spouse of the artist and co-editor of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist
This work will be included in the forthcoming Chu Teh-Chun artist catalogue raisonné, being co-edited by Fondation Chu Teh-Chun and Mrs. Ching-Chao Chu
2020 was the centenary of Chu Teh-Chun, the first Chinese member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts. In Spring Sale this year, Sotheby’s was honored to offer Les éléments confédérés, the artist’s only pentaptych, which sold for more than 100 million HKD, breaking Chu’s global auction record and paying the highest of tribute to this Chinese master. Chu Teh-Chun achieved the international renown he deserved in the later years of his career, and his fame after death only grew. Those accomplishments were underpinned by a half-century of uninterrupted innovations and breakthroughs. Confucius famously said, “At age 40, I had no doubts,” and this age is often regarded as a milestone marker. By the 1960s, Chu’s extraordinary talent was apparent, rising on the cutting edge of the international post-war art scene as a Chinese artist in France. Creating during Chu Teh-Chun’s golden era, No. 312 (Lot 1024) will be offered this season at Sotheby’s. Presented in a rare 2x2 meter square format, the spacious image embodies the philosophical idea: “heaven is round and earth is square.” Drawing from Chinese spirituality, Chu created an original concept for a landscape, which reflects a vast profound vision unmatched by his contemporaries. Exhibition materials highlight No. 312 as one of the artist’s major works, now considered a rare masterpiece, which Chu sent to the 10thBienal de São Paulo in 1969.
“What attracts me the most in Chu Teh-Chun paintings is his ‘at ease.’ The continuity of style and progress is observable in the pioneering spirit of the artist. He did not abandon or deny old themes completely, nor did he refuse to accept new modern concepts. His paintings widen your horizon… The poetry of the fleeting, the landscape, the mountain steeped in mist, which all come from a sensitivity entirely dedicated to living the moment.”
French Art Critic Hubert Juin, excerpt from The 10th Bienal de São Paulo, Foreword for Chu Teh-Chun exhibition room, 1969
Travelling to South America to Take His Place in the Art World
In 1969, Chu Teh-Chun was invited to participate in the 10th Bienal de São Paulo. The China Gallery was organized by Taiwan’s National Museum of History, which brought Chu’s work to South America for the first time. Chu was given his own exhibition space, where he showed fifteen works, all on canvas size 100 or larger. He was a master more than equal to these grand canvases, and the organizers were happy to offer him a solo gallery space. The dozen other participating Chinese artists, including Liu Guosong, Feng Zhongrui, and Liao Xiuping, showed a total of 44 works in another room, reflecting a distinct difference in presentation. The Bienal de São Paulo was a massive undertaking that brought together artists from 55 countries. So many artworks were on display that the catalogue could not include images of every piece. Chu Teh-Chun’s contribution is represented by fifteen works across just two pages. Thirteen of the works are only marked with dimensions and they are all titled Composição, including four major paintings measuring two meters square.
The date of No. 312 is 1969, the year of the 10th Bienal de São Paulo, which ran from September to December. In preparation for his first trip to South America and his first major international exhibition, he undoubtedly would have painted important, all-new works that reflected his lofty ambitions in the art world. Moreover, because of the difficulty of having canvases custom-made to these dimensions, Chu Teh-Chun made very few two-meter square paintings in the late 1960s. Based on Chu’s major catalogues and auction records, there are three works with similar dating and dimensions. The first was Composição (200 x 200 cm, 1968), which was pictured in the 10th Bienal de São Paulo catalogue. The second was No. 316 (200 x 200 cm, 1967-1968), which was published in the 1999 book Overseas Chinese Fine Arts Series II: Chu Teh-Chun. No. 312 (200 x 200 cm, 1969) is the third piece on which public records are available. According to the artist’s biography, after participating in group exhibitions at the Carnegie Museum of Art from 1964 to 1967, he participated in another large exhibition around 1969, which was the 10th Bienal de São Paulo. It is clear that No. 312 was a major work for Chu Teh-Chun, created for a pivotal moment of his career; this biennial was an important juncture as the artist moved toward his creative peak. Many invitations to exhibit would follow, and his international reputation increased. This exhibition would have a profound influence on his artistic development.
“As a Chinese, yin and yang, two infinitely changing elements in the philosophies of the I-Ching, have fundamental yet complementary aspects: yang is warm and bright, and yin is dark and moist. My source of inspiration is listening to the universe through nature, listening to people, listening to the East and the West, and expressing this with lyrical and poetic sentiments.”
Excerpt from Chu Teh-Chun’s Introduction speech upon becoming a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, February 3, 1999
Heaven is Round and Earth is Square
In the 1960s, Chu Teh-Chun became part of the Lyrical Abstraction movement. Moved by the work of abstract artist Nicolas de Staël, Chu realized that abstraction does not necessarily exclude representation. From his impassioned, sweeping brushstrokes, we can feel the pulse of nature running through his work. At the same time, his aesthetic ideas took inspiration from Zhuang Zi’s Man in the World: “Let your mind find its enjoyment in the circumstances of your position.” This refers to communing with nature or having a solitary interaction with the natural spirit, which is the highest realm of spiritual freedom. The magnificent scene in No. 312 alludes to the boundlessness of the world and it is the perfect embodiment of the balance of Eastern and Western cultures and the confluence of their aesthetics. It was by no accident that Chu selected this large square canvas. The unique choice suggests deeper philosophical implications. Chinese traditional philosophy, which presents the duality of yin and yang, had an influence on Chu Teh-Chun’s essential worldview. No. 312 perfectly embodies the notion “heaven is round and earth is square,” which is expressed in the theory of yin and yang. The space is arranged with the square as the earth and the circle as heaven, presenting a harmonious vision of “a circle in the square and a square in the circle” and representing the cycle of heaven and earth. This eternal cycle is the manifestation of Daoist thought on reality and illusion.
Much of Chu’s creative inspiration had come from experiences with nature, which instilled in the artist a sense of awe. The numerous exhibition invitations extended to Chu afforded him opportunities to travel to scenic destinations all over Europe. The magnificent scenery brought forth a wellspring of emotion in the artist, and he transformed his awe into endless creative inspiration. In 1965, Chu Teh-Chun was invited to an art festival in Savoy, France. While he was there, he had the chance to climb Mont Blanc. The first time he looked up at the pure white mountain peaks made a deep impression on him. His subsequent works bear the traces of these experiences, particularly in the relationships between light and shadow and the boundlessness of the scenes. Chu Teh-Chun’s most familiar series of snowscapes did not formally begin until the mid- to late 1980s, but his affinity for the Alps began long before that in the 1960s. Inspiration from these snowy landscapes gradually crept into his works, and No. 312 could be considered one of those early masterpieces. The mountain range is depicted in navy blue and sudden flashes of daylight appear in an emerald green. Grey tones create the rhythm of snowflakes as they fly through the air. All of these elements come from the artist’s emotional and awe-inspiring experiences of snowy landscapes. Hubert Juin gave this moving appraisal of Chu Teh-Chun’s work: "The panorama is enough to justify the dazzle by which man thanks for being alive. In the blue vast sky, the clouds write the most humane poem."
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附：由朱德群工作室開立、藝術家妻子暨正在籌備編纂的藝術家全集之聯席編輯董景昭女士親簽之作品保證書
註：此作品將收錄於朱德群基金會及朱董景昭女士正在編纂的〈朱德群作品編年集〉
2020年春季，適逢首位華裔法蘭西藝術院士朱德群誕辰一百周年，蘇富比榮幸呈獻藝術家畢生唯一五聯鉅作《自然頌》，並以破億港元勇創藝術家全球拍賣記錄，向這位開創先河的華人大師致以最崇高的敬意。朱德群得以在暮年以至身後享譽蜚聲國際的盛況，背後所付出的是半世紀以來無所間斷的創新、求變與突破；所謂四十而不惑，藝術家早在六〇年代已顯露出過人的才情與底氣，並以旅法華人藝術家的身份漸漸在國際藝壇上崛起，展露戰後新銳的鋒芒。本季登臨蘇富比之《第312號構圖》（拍品編號1024），便是來自朱德群的這段黃金時期，其以特殊罕見的兩米正方形式，將「天圓地方」的哲學反思訴諸廣闊巨大的畫面之上，從東方精神性的探索角度，獨創一片意象山水，反映筆者眼界之遼闊、思想之深湛、涵養之豐厚，皆是同代人所未能觸及的境界；而根據展覽文獻所示，本作應爲當年代表朱德群出席第十屆聖保羅雙年展的鉅作之一，由此確立以朱德群為首之現代亞洲藝術在西方的立足地，堪稱震撼與珍罕兼備的絕世宏構。
「今日朱德群的繪畫最吸引我的是他的坦然自若，其作品在不斷進步的過程中，產生了一種風格的連貫性，他既然未有拒絕舊有主題，也不怕接受新事物，他的畫拓寬了我們的視野……瞬息的詩歌、瞥見的風景、霧氣瀰漫的山峰，所有的這些都是源於對生命的敏銳度。」
法國著名藝評家余伯・阮《第十屆聖保羅雙年展朱德群展廳序言》節錄，1969年
出征南美・馳騁藝壇
1969年，朱德群獲邀參加第十屆聖保羅雙年展，而當年的中國展廳是由台灣國立歷史博物館協辦，其作品首度出征南美洲，便榮獲設置專室陳列的尊貴禮遇，廳内展出十五件作品，全是尺幅超越100號畫布的鉅製，顯示藝術家此時駕馭宏大壯闊的畫面絕對游刃有餘，主辦方也毫不吝惜地讓朱德群獨霸專用展室；同屆受邀參展的華人藝術家，包括劉國松、馮鍾睿、廖修平等十三位，則於另一展廳内共同展出四十四件作品，待遇顯然不盡相同。聖保羅雙年展的陣型龐大，包羅來自全球五十五個國家的藝術家踴躍參與，隨之帶來的展品眾多，因此目錄並未能盡錄所有作品圖片，而有關朱德群展室的部分，亦僅只印有十五件作品的其中兩幅圖版，其餘十三件作品只以尺寸分辨，並全部以籠統的《構圖（Composição）》題目標示，包括四張尺幅達至兩米乘以兩米的鉅製。
本作右下方與畫背的款識標明其創於1969年，時間點上剛好契合於同年九月至十二月期間舉行之第十屆聖保羅雙年展，而為了籌備這次首度遠赴南美、躋身國際的世界性展覽，藝術家無疑會獻上最精妙、最具代表性的全新創作，以展現馳騁藝壇的雄心壯志；再者，由於尺幅比例特殊的畫布訂製困難，朱德群創於六〇年代末而長寬均達兩米之畫作，確實屈指可數，據藝術家主要畫冊與拍賣記錄的資料統計，年代與尺寸相符的不過三幅，其一正是第十屆聖保羅雙年展畫冊内有圖版載錄的《構圖》（200 x 200 cm，1968年），其二是曾出版於1999年《華裔美術選集II：朱德群》的《第316號構圖》（200 x 200 cm，1967至1968年），而本作《第312號構圖》（200 x 200 cm，1969年）便是現存公開紀錄中，三件的最後一件條件符合的畫作——朱德群無非是爲了舉足輕重的項目，才會大費周章特製如此非比尋常、深具挑戰性的畫布款式；依照藝術家年表所示，繼於1964年及1967年在美國卡內基美術館參與聯展後，其於1969年之前後所參與的又一大型展覽，唯有第十屆聖保羅雙年展。
綜合以上背景因素，應可確立《第312號構圖》便是朱德群當年為此契機而創的巨作之一，而這次雙年展，是爲朱德群邁進事業巔峰的重要轉捩點，往後的展覽邀請接踵而至，國際名氣與日俱增，可謂對其日後的藝術發展具有深遠意義。
「作為漢家之子的我，在此意識到有一個特殊的使命要傳達，即《易經》中之哲理的再現——兩個最基本的元素，其生生不息、相輔相成在繪畫中的具體呈現。陽，是光明、熱烈；陰，是自然、柔和。我在大自然中聆聽宇宙、聆聽人、聆聽東方、聆聽西方，得到我唯一的靈感泉源，賦予詩情和詩意。」
朱德群就職法蘭西藝術院士演講節錄，1999年2月3日
天圓地方・博採四方
六〇年代，朱德群擠身「抒情抽象派」的代表之列，在俄裔抽象大師德・史岱爾的啟發下，藝術家了悟到「抽象並不排斥具象」，從其激昂縱橫的筆觸可感知，屬於大自然的脈搏氣韻猶在；與此同時，其美學概念亦依循莊子《人間世》中所道之「乘物以遊心」，意指順應自然，獨與天地精神相往來，方能實現心靈自由的至高境界——《第312號構圖》所呈現的一幕壯美景色，寓意天地間的浩瀚無垠，可謂朱德群平衡東西文化、博採各方美學的完美體現。朱德群選用尺幅巨大的正方畫布，固然不是偶然，而是富有哲思內涵的獨到選擇。中國傳統哲學博大精深，陰陽二元論乃其核心與精髓，無形間亦構成了朱德群的世界觀，《第312號構圖》亦正正體現了陰陽學說中的「天圓地方」，在空間佈局上以方載地、以圓喻天，形成「方中有圓，圓中有方」的和諧觀感，反映天地循環周而復始，如環無端，盡顯道家陰陽虛實之妙。
朱德群的創作靈感大多源自壯遊大自然的種種經歷，而隨著各地展覽邀請不斷，藝術家也獲得許多機會遊歷歐洲名勝，全情投入於山川勝景的環抱，體驗那妙不可言的瞬間悸動，隨之沉澱的視覺感受，也便自然而然地轉化成意藴無窮的創作靈感。1965年，朱德群受邀至法國薩瓦參加藝術節，期間有緣登上阿爾卑斯山的白朗峰，藝術家初次俯瞰白雪皚皚、蕩氣迴腸的山脈景貌，對此留下了深刻的印象，爾後所畫的作品中亦有跡可循，特別是對於白色的運用、光影的折射關係，以及磅礴的畫面視界。雖然朱德群最為人熟知的「雪景系列」於八〇年代中後期才正式啟航，但藝術家卻早於六〇年代已與阿爾卑斯山結緣，並逐步在創作中融入源自雪山的靈感，《第312號構圖》便屬當中的早期傑作：畫中以藏青表現山嶽連綿，以翠玉呈現晨光乍現，再用層次豐富的灰調營造有如雪花紛飛的空氣律動，一切皆源於藝術家親臨雪景的那份震懾與感動，借余伯・阮對朱德群作品的一句動人評寫：「全景足以體現一個人為活著而感恩的奇蹟；在空曠的天空中，雲朵寫出了最人性化的詩。」