Page 74 - The Pioneers, November 26, 2016 Hong Kong
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intersection of the lines. These forceful marks also national crisis, as the soldiers in the poem, who
suggest the temporality of the writing process, as the ‘stayed not in permanence, achieving victory thrice
viewer directs his gaze, the cadence and correlations a month!’ Chu, with his talent and diligence, striving
between each detail converges into a majestically for excellence in a foreign land for fifty years, gaining
orchestrated work that celebrates the compelling international acclaim by his mastery of both Chinese
poetic beauty of the snow. and Western art and prestigiously recognized as a
member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of France
“When I departed in the past, the willows were
young; Now that I am returning, snow is falling on Chu illustrated the Chinese poet Su Shi’s idea of the
me incessantly. The travel is slow, I am thirsty and unison between poetry and painting, Chu once said,
hungry. I am forlorn, with no one knowing.” ‘I love Chinese poetry […] it naturally merged into my
- The last stanza of 'Caiwei' from the Lesser Ya paintings. Western critics thought my works are poetic
chapter of the Book of Songs. abstract painting, this is an apt observation.” His
words suggested a creative spirit that is distinctively
The title in Chinese evokes the memory of the snow oriental, in the complementing relationship between
in the last stanza of the ‘Caiwei’ poem from the Book poetry and painting, an reflective experience towards
of Songs. The poem itself correlates much to Chu’s the nature and emotion is shown. Vertige Neigeux is
own life. The poem’s subject is on war, the first three not only a work that shows Chu’s mastery of poetry,
stanzas talk about the soldiers who spent their life in calligraphy and painting, it is also a miniature of Chu’s
border garrison and their longing for their hometowns artistic career and life, pouring his feelings onto the
in such hardship. Chu himself experienced war from painting, using a modern abstract form to perpetuate
seventeen to twenty-five years old. Losing his parents, classical Chinese humanism, it is a fine expression of
his paintings done before twenty-five years old were oriental abstract aesthetics. From present records, Chu
also destroyed during the war. He once said, ‘The did not further worked on any snow scene after 1991.
turmoil both internal and external from 1935 to 1949 Vertige Neigeux is thus a perfect consummation of his
left me with a void in my artistic career.’ After the snow scene series, showing clearly how Chu imbued
war, Chu moved to Taiwan, in other word, Chu had a classical Chinese aesthetics into his pursuit of western
life of uncertainties before arriving in Paris when he abstract, successfully using a revolutionary perspective
was thirty-five years old. The last two stanzas of the in changing the aesthetics, leaving a monumental
poem show how the soldiers, despite their longing for milestone on the history of art.
the hometown, shows heroism in face of impending
Fig 1 Chu Teh-chun, Synthèse hivernale (Wintry Fig 3 Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), 1950, Fig 6 Wen Zhengming, Orchids and Bamboo,
synthesis), 1985, Christie's Hong Kong, 28 National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C., USA
November 2015, lot 18, sold for HK D 11,440,000. © 2016 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Ming Dynasty, National Palace Museum,
© Courtesy of Chu Teh-chun 圖3傑克遜・波洛克 《第1號，1950（薰衣草薄霧）》國家藝廊 華盛頓特區 美國
圖1 朱德群《冬之組合》1985年作 佳士得香港 2015 Taipei, Taiwan
年 11月 28日 編號18 成交價11,440,000港幣 圖6文徵明《畫蘭竹》明代 國立故宮博物院
台北 台灣
64 THE PIONEERS 先 鋒 薈 萃
