Chu Teh-Chun (Zhu Dequn)

signed in Chinese and Pinyin and dated 66; signed in Chinese and Pinyin, titled and dated 1966 on the reverse

Important Private Asian Collection

This work is in good condition. There is evidence of minor undulation at the lower right corner of the work. There is a spot of minor paint loss 33 cm from the bottom along the left edge of the work. There are scattered spots of minor paint loss 5 cm from the top and 25 cm from the left edge. There is a spot of minor paint loss 21 cm from the right along the top edge. Under UV light, there is a spot of fluorescence at the bottom right corner.
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Composition No. 232 by Chu Teh-Chun
Seeing the universe through Eastern philosophy

French philosopher Gaston Bachelard once discussed that “the universe is formed by four symbolic origins: fire, air, water and earth. Their effects on one’s imagination are both distant and cryptically metaphorical. Nevertheless, once we have found the real properties of an art work in relations to the universe’s origin, we then will have also discovered the uniform body’s mystery …As an artist gains inspirations from these origins, s/he also receives a natural embryo of creativity.” Chu Teh-Chun is one of such artists.

In 1956, Chu Teh-Chun’s artistic journey went through crucial changes. Leaving behind representative portrays of landscape and objects, a specialty of his, Chu Teh-Chun used lines and colours to offer a poetic, abstract portrayal of his insights from his observations of nature. It is just as Bachelard described – like an alchemist, Chu delved deep into the origins of the universe, and distilled the fundamental elements to then be displayed on canvas. Like a martial artist who sharpened his/her swordsmanship through prolonged refinement, he established his position as a master Lyrical Abstractionist in Western Post-War Abstractionism over the decade from 1956 to 1966. Completed in 1966, Composition No. 232 is a representative masterpiece from a peak of the artist’s creative career. 

Filling the firmament with a majestic red glow; a visual spectacle of a thousand facets

From late 1950s to mid-1960s, Chu Teh-Chun used red, blue, green and white as his paintings’ key colours, distributed throughout the background or images, completed with the application of vibrant black lines across the canvas. Interestingly, the duality constructed by the colours and black lines share certain common features with Japanese paintings that originated from ancient China. By transposing such features onto his abstract paintings, Chu also established a personal style, aptly displayed in Composition No. 232.

The artist has created a rhythmic and passionate love poem on canvas, by employing contrasting main colours of red and black which strongly suggest elements of festive celebrations in Chinese culture, with vividly moving black lines, like music notes that travel through the peaks and troughs of a melody. In the picture, bright, ravishing glow of oil paint in chrome yellow, peach, red as well as quartz-like green dance against the red background, like fireflies rolling and flickering in the dark, setting a quiet and still world in motion. As the space opens and closes, air and light cause a strange variation in the atmosphere, accentuating the artist’s reverence of nature.

By infusing his own feelings into the painting, Chu Teh-Chun presented his personal interpretation of nature’s ever-changing splendor, filling the work with a sense of fascination, like the magnificent red glow of sunset as one climbs up the mountains. Within the black lines are thousands of hills and ravines, as the viewer’s gaze moves across the canvas, the mind travels for thousands of miles. It is as if one is sailing on a small boat alongside Su Shi, the Northern Song Dynasty literary giant, admiring the majestic Red Cliff portrayed in Su’s poem Chi Bi Fu (A Prose on Red Cliff): “The river is in the midst of a white fog, the light reflected from the surface joins with the sky. Sailing on a small boat like a reed leaf, I float above the boundless water. Riding the wind, I travel in this vast and majestic void, not knowing where it might stop; drifting as if I’ve been left all on my own in this world, I attain enlightenment and fly away.” Such a blithe spirit it portrays!

Seeing the grand vision from small details, in an elegant and rich internal world

Part of an Important Private Asian Collection, Composition No. 232 clearly illustrates the artist’s masterful command of colours, composition, rhythm of brushworks, as well as his manipulation of the abstract and concrete space. As commented by French art critic Pierre Cabanne, the work “is incredibly rich, immediately capturing the viewer’s attention, establishing a kind of relationship between them and us. Their light seems to come from a complex whole, where the colours possess a real and tangible life force…phenomena and appearances wrestle in an ever-changing flame of light, sometimes it sparkles, sometimes it burns. The artist’s brushstrokes and motions seem to breathe in a synchronized rhythm with the universe, portraying its creative landscape with strong or gentle colours. Each time the paint brush moves, in its dancelike motion, nature seems to also wake up with a certain rhythm, and burn with a dazzling glow that spreads through the canvas and lingers long afterwards.” The work has been preserved in immaculate condition since its creation a few decades ago and never been sold in an auction, hence making this first public sale an especially rare opportunity.