Chu Teh-Chun (Zhu Dequn)

Galerie J. Bastien Art, Brussels
Important Private Asian Collection

Shanghai, Shanghai Exhibition Centre, ShContemporary 2007, 6 - 9 September 2007
Paris, Grand Palais, FIAC 2008, 23 - 26 October 2008
Brussels, Gallerie J. Bastien Art, 2009

This work is in very good condition. One can see slight wear on all 4 edges; tiny paint loss on the left edge middle and right edge middle.
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The Music of Nature: Eternal Splendor

Chu Teh-Chun Sereines clartés

In December of 1997, artist Chu Teh-Chun was elected as a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts with overwhelming approval. This honor from the academy was not merely a title, but an acknowledgment: the elitist international art world had granted Chu Teh-Chun, a forty-year Chinese expatriate in France, the highest form of recognition. This honor had previously been bestowed exclusively upon Western artists, including the French Neoclassical painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, and French Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix. The academy’s induction of its sole ethnically Chinese member in 250 years marked an important milestone, one which sent tremors of surprise into both the Western and Eastern art worlds.

At his induction speech into the academy, Chu said, “I’m motivated by a deep, intense passion to express my art and my ideals, and to pursue the ideal of an ‘eternal, undiminishing beauty.’ As a Chinese immigrant, I have a special mission, which is to create the two basic elements of yin and yang as introduced in the I Ching. Yang is light, it’s passion; Yin is nourishment, it’s gentleness. I’ve always sought to unite the traditional colors of Western painting with contemporary abstract painting in the way that yin is harmoniously united with yang, to create, in a sense, the infinite universe…On my canvases, colors and brushstrokes are never applied by chance. Together, they pursue a shared goal: to ignite light, to evoke forms and rhythms.” This perfectly captures what Chu has sought in his life’s artwork: the manipulation and illustration of light, the summoning of form and dynamism, the artist’s experience of nature’s two energies of contention and harmony in the context of Eastern philosophy – all of this, he portrays with the abstract language of Western contemporary art. These distinctive characteristics are particularly pronounced in the artist’s later works, with Sereines clartés (Lot 1017), completed in 2006, being the best representative among them.

The late 1990s to the early 2000s marked Chu’s rise to international fame, as well as the height of his artistic prowess. In addition to his membership at the Académie des Beaux-Arts and being solidly established in the European art world, the artist was receiving invitations to display his work in Asia. In 2000, he held solo exhibitions at the Shanghai Museum and the Guangdong Museum of Art, and later accompanied French President Jacques Chirac on a visit to Beijing. In 2002, the artist held a solo exhibition at Galerie Darga in Bali, Indonesia. The same year, the Shanghai Opera House commissioned Chu to create a large-scale oil painting for their permanent collection. And in 2004, he began a traveling exhibition in Zurich. The success and glory of the artist’s life as well as the frequency of his exhibitions and visits in China led to a change: gone was the dense black ink of his works from the late 50s and 60s. Instead, his works started to feature brilliant, opulent colors. These vivid colors coupled with quick and lithe lines suggest the radiance of nature. And the billowing waves of China, the majestic charm of its mountains and lakes, also quietly seeped into his canvases. These later works are a testament to the author’s inner mood as well as his masterful control and virtuosic artistry.

Black Shadows of Distant Mountains, Dreams of Dawn During Summer

"Everything is born, and reborn, before our eyes. Matter ceaselessly transforms and churns, nurturing movement that never ceases nor tires. What appears before our eyes is the director’s well-choreographed dance. Painting and music have been united. Chu Teh-Chun’s paintings possess the ideal that 11^th century Chinese painter Mi Fu once described: to possess a unique allure and means of expression is to be tightly bound with nature. The world puts its rich colors on display before us, and Chu has praised the essence of nature, and what he has given the earth is an entirely singular love poem of universal significance."
Lydia Harambough

Amidst the dominant colors of azure and turquoise, the artist’s brush acts as a conductor’s baton, transforming blocks of color and lines into music, the center of the horizontal canvas playing as the main melody. As the brush sweeps across the canvas, a brisk and lively waltz sounds out, joy and jubilation emerging like a spring breeze, wafting towards the viewer. The radiant gold is a fairy, sprinkling colors as it rises and falls, generating variation. The warm vermillion and orange begin to permeate the world of the indigo, the brilliant light unveiling the true appearance of the earth. Suddenly, what appears before our eyes are verdant hills, jade valleys, lakes and mountains, evocative in their beauty. It’s the dream world existing at the intersection of sky and ocean. The outline of form and structure in Sereines clartés is not distinct, but it is the crystallization of the artist’s careful deliberation. In its expression of movement, speed, light, and conflict and contrast between yin and yang, Chu has executed balance with perfection. As Chu’s good friend and artist Wu Guanzhong once said, “Paintings are like a chorus of movement, and Chu Teh-Chun has harmoniously united the rhythmic beauty of his movement with colors. People are able to witness this wild dance but without a pin drop of noise, as if through a layer of crystal. The power and coarseness of the energy is enveloped in the beauty of tranquility.” This is an image that lingers in the heart, never fading.