Page 547 - Bonhams Chinese and Comtemporary Paintings Nov 2014 Hong Kong

There is surely no more beautiful elemental force than a snow storm. these rugged mountains and deep valleys which had stirred the hearts
Powerful and intense, and yet ethereal and diaphanous, such a storm of generations of Chinese artists.
can be all-enveloping, even terrifying. But despite its innate chaos, a flurry
of snow is also delicate, formed from tiny crystalline flakes, each more The most important journey of Chu’s life was to take place in 1955, when
strange and exquisite than the last. It is surely the contrast of force and he boarded a boat bound for Europe. His ultimate destination was Paris,
airiness, this clash of potency and delicacy, which fascinated Chu Teh- the heart of the western art world, a place brimming with talent, ideas and
Chun and inspired his celebrated series of snow paintings completed invention and a veritable Mecca for modern artists. Although his first port
during the mid to late 1980s. Abstraction I of 1985 is one of the most of call on arrival was the Louvre, where he finally had the chance to view
satisfying examples from this period, a complex work of art which the canvases that he had admired for so many years in books and prints,
demonstrates Chu’s unrivalled painterly skills and deep understanding it was a chance encounter with the work of Nicolas de Staël that was
of the natural world. This painting, not quite landscape, not quite to truly change the direction of Chu’s own art. Finally, Chu’s experiments
abstract, retains an air of mystery and requires careful contemplation. in abstraction began, launching the long, gradual evolution of the style

for which he is now known throughout the world.
Paris was to become the artist’s home for the rest
of his long and distinguished life.

Chu Teh-Chun’s series of snow paintings was

inspired by a journey he took across the Alps in

the winter of 1985. Having attended the opening

of a group exhibition at the Galerie Pierre Huber

in which he was participating, Chu took the train

from Geneva to Paris, crossing the mountains

in the middle of a winter storm. Cocooned in

the safety of the train carriage, Chu was able

to witness the extremes of the Alpine weather,

and found himself entranced by the wild flurries

of snow and the way that they caught and

reflected the light. On his arrival in Paris, the

artist got straight to work in his studio, seizing

this vivid experience and transforming it into a

painted image. Abstraction I, probably one of the

earliest of this important group of works, perfectly

captures the encounter between man and nature,

an experience in which we can only feel humbled

by the potent spirit of the world that surrounds us.

This painting utilises Chu’s distinctive energetic

Claude Monet, Snow Scene at Argenteuil, 1875 style, his sweeps and swirls of paint, to dramatic
London, The National Gallery. © 2014. Copyright The National Gallery, London / Scala, Florence. effect, with broad areas of pure white evoking the

almost blinding light of a snowy mountainside.

In its combination of Chinese and European aesthetics, Abstraction I Peering through the mist of snowfall, the darker shapes of the mountains

creates a vision of the world which steps boldly into innovation and themselves begin to emerge, vague and shadowy yet unmistakeably

modernist aesthetics, and yet retains a foothold in ancient techniques imposing. If Abstraction I is a painting about the power of mother-nature,

and philosophies. In his combination of old and new, traditional and then it is a power which is both wonderful and formidable.

modern, Chu Teh-Chun developed an important and influential visual

language all his own. A number of artists have attempted to capture the innate beauty of

snow over the centuries, perhaps drawn to the almost supernatural

The artist’s own story is an epic one. Born into a cultured Chinese family light that it generates. One of the earliest was Pieter Breughel, whose

in 1920, Chu was brought up in an artistic environment. He enrolled at icy winter landscapes bustle with life. It is perhaps unsurprising that

the renowned National School of Fine Arts of Hangzhou at the tender Impressionists such as Monet and Sisley were drawn to the lightness

age of 15, where he was not only exposed to traditional techniques and brightness of a snow scene, and created masterpieces from the

in brushwork and calligraphy, but also to European imagery and the shifting, ever changing vistas that is creates. Another member of the

distinctly occidental practice of oil on canvas. The fact that a number of Parisian school who tackled this inherently transient subject was Maria

the masters there had already travelled to France in the 1920s was to Helena Vieira da Silva, who was also active in the French capital in

prove crucial in Chu’s own artistic development. Following his graduation the second half of the 20th Century. Her oil on canvas titled Winter in

in 1941, Chu moved into teaching, spending six years as a professor Lisbon of 1958 recalls the snowy skylines of her distant home town,

at the Taiwan National University in Taipei. It is also during this period its grid-like composition radically different from that of Chu, and yet no

that Chu spent time exploring the landscape which surrounded him less affecting. Of all these artists, however, it is surely only the Chinese

in more depth, getting to know the shapes and forms of the stunning master Chu Teh-Chun who successfully represented snow at its most

crags and cliffs that bordered the Yangtze River, taking inspiration from savage and unpredictable.

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