CHU TEH-CHUN 朱德群 | TRANSPARENCE GLACIARE 透明冰河

Galerie Arlette Gimaray, Paris, 1989

Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 7 October 2007, Lot 522

Acquired directly from the above by the present important private Asian collector 

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巴黎，吉馬萊畫廊，1989年

香港，蘇富比，2007年10月7日，拍品編號522

現亞洲重要私人藏家直接購自上述拍賣

Pierre Cabanne, Chu Teh-Chun, Flammarion, Paris, 2000, plate 42, p. 123

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〈朱德群〉皮耶・卡班納（巴黎，Flammarion，二〇〇〇年），圖版42，123頁

Paris, Galerie Arlette Gimaray, Chu Teh-Chun, 19 April - 13 May 1989

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巴黎，吉馬萊畫廊〈朱德群〉一九八九年四月十九日至五月十三日

Legendary Snowy Peaks 

Chu Teh-Chun reached his artistic peak in the 1980s, perfecting the combination of Eastern and Western traditions in works that would constitute his creative golden age. In 1987, Chu Teh-Chun held a large retrospective at the National Museum of History in Taipei, marking his formal return to the Asian art world after having lived 32 years abroad starting in 1955.

Transparence glaciaire (Lot 1025) ,one of the best works in his series of snowscapes, was painted in this important year.

Chu painted snowscapes from 1985 to 1990, and the series originated with a solo show that he held in Switzerland in 1985. During his travels, he was inspired by the magnificent peaks of the Alps, which gave the works he made soon thereafter a decidedly different kind of charm. Decades before he began his snowscapes, Chu had already reached two important turning points in the development of his abstract art, both sparked by the works of earlier artists. Chu Teh-Chun was deeply impressed when he attended a retrospective for abstract painter Nicolas de Staël in 1956, it was after this that he made his first push toward abstraction. In 1969, Chu went to Amsterdam to view an exhibition held in honour of the 300th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death. He gained new insight on chiaroscuro techniques from these classical oil paintings, which prompted another shift in his abstract art. Chu’s snowscapes could be considered his third major creative breakthrough. Northern Song landscape master Fan Kuan once wrote, “It is better to learn from nature than from the ancients.” Nature was a decidedly different source of inspiration than his two earlier revelations. Transparence glaciaire, one of his snowscapes, is bursting with tension, conveying the surging power of nature. With Chu’s formal return to Asia, the ink effects of his snowscapes gained in vigour. Although he was painting the series in oil, the effect resembles ink painting as it suggests the influence of the Zen aesthetics and concept of ‘leaving empty space’ in traditional Chinese ink painting. 

The back of Transparence glaciaire bears a label from Galerie Arlette Gimaray, which held solo exhibitions for Chu in 1989 and 1992. This painting was likely shown in the earlier 1989 exhibition, as the 1992 show focused on his work from the 1960s. In 2000, French art critic Pierre Cabanne edited an important catalogue for Chu with the long-standing Parisian publishing house Flammarion. Chu greatly valued this book, which contained Transparence glaciaire, thereby demonstrating the significance of this work for the artist.

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註：畫背貼有巴黎吉馬萊畫廊標籤

登峰年代雪嶺傳奇

八○年代，朱德群的藝術臻至爐火純青，駕馭東﹑西方傳統皆遊刃有餘，成就創作上的黃金時期；1987年，台北歷史博物館為朱德群舉行大型回顧展，象徵藝術家自1955年離台赴法三十二年之後，正式回歸亞洲畫壇，而《透明冰河》（拍品編號1025）即誕生於此一重要年份，乃其「雪景系列」之上乘之作。

「雪景系列」誕生於1985至1990年，其緣起自藝術家1985年前往瑞士舉行個展，途中在阿爾卑斯山受到壯麗的雪嶺景色啟迪，作品因此綻放截然不同的魅力；從朱德群的抽象語言發展看來，其首兩次重要轉折皆與前代藝術家有關：1956年，朱德群參觀了早逝的旅法俄裔抽象大師德史岱爾的回顧展，由是獲得邁向抽象門庭之首鑰；1969年，藝術家前往阿姆斯特丹參觀倫勃朗逝世三百周年大展，對於古典油畫的光影技法獲得嶄新體悟，促進其抽象創作之突破性發展；北宋山水大師范寛曾言：「師古人不如師造化」，朱德群「雪景系列」之誕生，堪稱其藝術創作上的第三次重大突破，其靈感來自造化，與前兩次受到前人啟迪，在本質上有根本意義之不同；亦因如此，以《透明冰河》為代表的「雪景系列」，其噴薄而至的藝術感染力，傳遞著更為洶湧澎湃的自然力量，讓觀者猶如身臨其境，親歷雄奇凜冽的飛霜幻虹，近炙高峻迷離的雪嶺冬谷。在表現手法上，隨著藝術家正式回歸東方，「雪景系列」的水墨氣象亦更為蓬勃，畫面承載的雖為油彩，卻呼喚著「焦﹑濃﹑重﹑淡﹑清」的墨色迢遞，對應著宣紙留白的禪機與美學。

《透明冰河》畫背貼有巴黎吉馬萊畫廊標籤，考吉馬萊畫廊曾於1989及1992年兩度為藝術家舉行個展，其中1992年的展覽主題是朱德群六〇年作代品，故本作應該參與了1989年之展覽；2000年，法國藝評家皮耶・卡班納為朱德群主編重要畫集，由具有過百年歷史的巴黎弗拉馬利翁出版社出版，藝術家本人非常重視此部作品集，《透明冰河》收錄其中，足見本作深受重視，意義非凡。