Chu Teh-Chun (Zhu Dequn)

de Sarthe Gallery (Hong Kong) label affixed to the reverse

Acquired directly from the artist by a private French collector
de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner 

Hong Kong, de Sarthe Gallery, Chu Teh-Chun: Nature in Abstraction, 5 October - 3 November, 2012, p. 31

This work is in overall very good condition. There is no apparent inpainting under UV light examination.
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Weaving through a Boundless Realm

Chu Teh-Chun Le monde du silence

La monde du silence (Lot 1033) and Clartés paisibles (Lot 1032) are both rare works, completed in 1985, from a series of snow scenes by the renowned Chinese abstract painter Chu Teh-Chun. Each painting has its own style. There are no warm hues to be found in La monde du silence; the painter diligently confines himself to pure tones of turquoise, black, white, grey, and brown. His contained and simple use of colour expresses his aesthetic ideals and reveals the exquisite elegance of the natural world.

Distilling and Re-interpreting the Aesthetics of Chinese Calligraphy and Ink Painting

In the vertical painting La monde du silence, Chu Teh-Chun contradicts the accepted dictum of the French Impressionist Paul Cézanne that “when colour achieves richness, the form attains fullness”. Instead, Chu uses low-key tones of varying brightness and subtle differentiation to create an awe-inspiring vision of the world. In Famous Paintings through History, the Tang Dynasty art historian Zhang Yanyuan describes black ink as “a black that contains five hues”. In traditional ink painting, the black of the ink has always been considered not a single colour but rather a source of rich variations of colour. Although Chu Teh-Chun uses a concise palette, this painting is far from drab; on the contrary, it possesses a boundless vitality and charm.

Pure white snowflakes descend at varying speeds like a curtain over the world of this canvas. They fall in clear, flowing layers, recording the rhythms of nature and tracing the paths of intangible cosmic winds, mixing together in a rousing, powerful symphony. Black lines and shapes dance about in the falling snow in flowing, winding movements, demonstrating the artist’s profound skill in calligraphy, which he studied from a young age. Chu Teh-Chun adapts the different expressions of the traditional strokes of calligraphy into the abstract lines of his paintbrush. He wields the brush at a high speed, as the Hong Kong critic Lin Tongnian once observed: “Nimble and forthright, with dancing, calligraphic flourishes, freely traversing to and fro in movements akin to the marvels of nature: it is the epitome of uninhibited painting. At first glance, the brushwork seems almost aimless and coincidental. But upon further contemplation, one senses the logic behind it, the balance of horizontal and vertical, governed by the laws of flight, with clear twists and turns. It contains a bold and natural music, rising and falling to form postures, with a structure of its own”.

What seems incidental is in fact a meticulously organised crystallization of the formal language of colour, line, and abstract shape developed by the artist through years of refinement.

Emotional Creativity and Inexhaustible Poetry

In La monde du silence, Chu Teh-Chun portrays more than simply a scene of shifting weather; the painting also contains the artist's experiences of the vicissitudes of life , which evokes the feelings of hope, subdued joy, and anticipation that accompany the end of winter and the beginning of spring, as expressed by Han Yu in Snow in Spring: “The white snow thinks the colours of spring are late, / So through the pavilion and trees it flies like flower blossoms”. The artist weaves his inspired sense of unity with nature into the painting, and uses his distinctive artistic lexicon to passionately express his sentiments. His open, unreserved voice invites us into the painting, where we can sample the delicate flavours of life.