Chu Teh Chun

CHU TEH-CHUN (Baitou Zhen, Jiangsu, China, 1920-2014).
Untitled.
Lithograph on 270 gram Vélin d'Arches paper, copy 69/250.
Signed, dated and justified in pencil.
Measurements: 63 x 90 cm.
Chu Teh Chun is one of the most successful contemporary Chinese painters. He was born in 1920 in Jiangsu Province. His artistic inclination comes from the cradle, since his family was composed by doctors and collectors of Chinese painting. He began studying art at the age of 15 at the Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and became a professor at the National Central University of Nanking. In 1949 he moved to live in Taiwan, becoming a professor of art at the National University. In 1955 he moved to Paris to learn from the best and began exhibiting in the city of lights. There he frequented the artists of the School of Paris such as Pierre Soulages, Hartung or Mathieu, and his art met an initial success that spread abroad thanks to group exhibitions in which he presented his work (Pittsburg, Jerusalem, Athens, Sao Paulo). In 1987, the National Museum of Taipei organized an important retrospective for him: it was his first return to his native country. In 1997 he is elected to the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institute of France. For the ''Year of China in France'' in 2004, no less than four exhibitions are dedicated to him. And in 1997, he was the first Chinese artist to be elected as a member of the prestigious Academy of Arts and Letters in Paris. His artistic objective since then has been to unite Eastern and Western art without abandoning his Chinese artistic roots, which gives him this exclusivity. His works, practically all of them abstract, are Chinese landscapes, very poetic, that instead of showing, suggest rocks, waterfalls, mountains, colorful clouds... allowing the viewer to feel what is in each work. His work exudes energy and vitality having a life of its own. They are incredible compositions that intermingle romantic and abstract styles to give the works a special significance. Thanks to the opening of mainland China to the outside world, today, Chu Teh Chun is known and greatly praised in his homeland, where he has held countless exhibitions.
The Olympic Suite is composed of 50 lithographs and serigraphs chosen to represent various contemporary artistic trends. It was published to commemorate the first centenary of modern Olympism. The chosen artists are defined by diverse pictorial movements and trends.