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| Image | Sale date | Auction house | Location | Sale name | Lot No. | Estimate | Price Sold | Condition | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jun 3, 2019 | China Guardian | Beijing | 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale | 2060 | $****** - ****** | Composition No.90 | |||
Mar 29, 2018 | Poly Auction | Hong Kong | Modern and Contemporary Art | 167 | $****** - ****** | Composition No. 90 |
paintings
82.5 x 100 cm (32.48 x 39.37 in)
Oil on canvas
Chu Teh-Chun 88 Retrospective, National Museum of History, Taipei, 19 September-23 November 2008.
Abstract Painting Pioneer-New York Abstract Expression and Paris Non-figuration art, P44-45, New Age Gallery, 1999;
Solo Exhibition of Chu Teh-Chun, P121, Thin Chang Corporation, 2007;
Chu Teh-Chun 88 Retrospective, P102, Thin Chang Corporation/National Museum of History, 2008;
Chu Teh-Chun 88 Retrospective, P55, Thin Chang Corporation, 2008.
Signed in Chinese and Pin Yin(lower right); Signed in Chinese and Pin Yin, dated 1961, Inscribed the title(on the reverse)
LITERATURE:
Abstract Painting Pioneer-New York Abstract Expression and Paris Non-figuration art, P44-45, New Age Gallery, 1999;
Solo Exhibition of Chu Teh-Chun, P121, Thin Chang Corporation, 2007;
Chu Teh-Chun 88 Retrospective, P102, Thin Chang Corporation/National Museum of History, 2008;
Chu Teh-Chun 88 Retrospective, P55, Thin Chang Corporation, 2008.
Signed in Chinese and Pin Yin(lower right); Signed in Chinese and Pin Yin, dated 1961, Inscribed the title(on the reverse)
EXHIBITED:
Chu Teh-Chun 88 Retrospective, National Museum of History, Taipei, 19 September-23 November 2008.
The item is held under the bonded status, please check the NOTICE ON AUCTION OF BONDED LOTS in this catalogue for details.
The Composition No.90 was one of the “Composition” series works of Chu Teh-Chun's early artistic career. In this period, Chu The-Chun's style of abstraction started to form, indicated the beginning of his combination of abstract expressionism and traditional oriental styles. Together with Wu Guanzhong and Zao Wou-Ki, they were regarded as “the Three Musketeers” studied in France. In 1997, he was recognized by the French authoritative art institution and became the first Chinese to receive the honorary academician of Académie des Beaux-Arts. Chu Teh-Chun combined his ink and calligraphy skills with the strong artistic language of Western expressionism, making his works reflect the cultural connotation of the East in the forms of abstraction from the West. The “Composition” series were the representative works of Chu Teh-Chun's early abstract artworks. During this period, Chu Teh-Chun began to explore his abstract style, showing the freedom in abstract expressionism.
Chu Teh-Chun was born in Jiangsu in 1920. He enrolled into Hangzhou National College of Art in 1935 and studied from Fang Ganmin and Wu Dayu. He moved to France in 1955 and the artworks created by Russian-origin artist Nicolas de Staël inspired him to try and explore the abstract painting, from which time Chu Teh-Chun transferred his style from representation to abstraction. In his continuous studying of colour blocks, lines and shadows and lights, his works gradually got rid of the limitation of figurative and realistic styles. From 1955 to 1959, Chu The-Chun's gradually settled down in Paris and his art creation ushered in a new peak. His early abstract creations, the “Composition” series, were mature and presented a strong and exiting appearance. This Composition No.90 was from this important period.
The centre of Composition No.90 was swayed with heavy colours. The strong calligraphy lines are like a boulder causing the wave. The changing of thickness of the lines has layered the lines, stirring the calm and simple background. The strong contrast of rhythm has added a sense of dynamics and excitement into the construction of the painting. The cream white and light yellow add brightness into the overall dim image, as if a light penetrating the darkness, further highlighting the trend and changes of the central lines.
Chu Teh-Chun's calligraphy and ink painting skills made him control the strength of brushstrokes and the volume of colours. He used the diluted grey-blue oil paint for the background, giving a light texture to the oil colour and reflecting the effect of ink painting. The yellow colour interspersed in the large-scale cream white adds a sense of layering and rhythm into the skylight. Together with the complicated black lines, they establish a multi-layered space. The combination of black and yellow also builds the order of Chinese painting style in the rough oil painting.
For Chu Teh-Chun, abstract expressionism represents the freedom of thought and the sway of emotions, and it is intrinsically related to certain techniques of Chinese calligraphy. Such freedom and his love for nature have reached a harmonious unity in his picture. As he said: “I paint the light of my heart, which is also the light of my soul.” At the same time, Chu Teh-Chun applied many concepts in traditional painting theory into his creation, redefining the abstraction of the West and he “depicted it as a co-evolved binary and harmonious body”, injecting the unrestrained vitality into the canvas.
