Lot 41
  • 41

Zhu Dequn (Chu Teh-chun)

bidding is closed

Description

  • Zhu Dequn (Chu Teh-Chun)
  • Composition No. 23 (Au seuil de la clarté)
  • signed in Chinese and French and dated 04; signed in Chinese and French, titled in French and dated 2004 
  • oil on canvas
  • 51 1/8 by 76 3/4 in. 130 by 195 cm.

Provenance

Francoise Heusser Gallery, Genève

Exhibited

Francoise Heusser Gallery, Genève, July - September 2004

Literature

Chu Teh-Chun, Impressions Art Gallery, Taipei, 2005, p. 115, illustrated in color

Catalogue Note

In the grand Composition No. 23 (Au seuil de la clarté) (2004, [On the Threshold of Clarity] Lot 41) Chu deploys similar strategies but pushes the color language and compositional complexity several steps further.  If the eye is immediately drawn to the trio of primaries at left (red, yellow, blue), it quickly darts to the complimentary pinks and teals, as well as the black and white juxtapositions nearby that provide an essential balance to the weightiness of the dark colors that dominate the painting’s right-hand side.  While the virtuosic color language is uplifting – in keeping with the painting’s hopeful title – it is the overall architecture of the picture one finds most impressive.  Examined in detail, the dominant dark form at right is composed of such a variety of painterly applications and range of colors that it defies characterization as a single mass.  A plate tectonics of washes and brushstrokes, highlighted by deep red daubs and the artist’s scratching through the layers, leads the eye to shift among the multiplicity of forms and leavens the overall effect of this extraordinary, bold composition.