Chu Teh-chun to Hugues Gall: A Gift from a Painter to an Opera Director
This painting making its debut at auction, whose colors seem in joyous turmoil, was a gift from the Chinese master to Hugues Gall, former director of the Paris and Geneva opera houses. A gift from one Academy member to another…
Estimate: €80,000/120,000
An inscription on the back of the canvas reads “To my dear colleague Hugues Gall, as a token of friendship, Chu Teh-chun.” To the left of the inscription is the title, “Effervesence” (sic), the artist’s signature and a date, 2006. That year, the Franco-Chinese artist was made an Officer of the French National Order of Merit. He was also represented for the first time by the New York branch of the famous Marlborough Gallery, which presented several of his paintings. At nearly 90 years old, the artist was a celebrity, having exhibited in France, China and Taiwan. Above all, he had been a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts since 1997. It was at this venerable institution—he was its first member of Chinese origin—that he met the man to whom he gave this painting: Hugues Gall. The latter, who died last May, was a memorable Director of the Paris Opera, which he managed with a masterly hand from 1995 to 2004. He was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2002. Vice-president of the Nureyev Foundation, he was also a member of several boards, including those of the Château de Fontainebleau and the Musée des Impressionnismes de Giverny. After the deaths of these two men, ten years apart, this painting remains, a symbol of the friendship uniting these two impressive figures.
“His paintings are in harmony with the landscape, using both strong and soft colors, with flaming reds and fuchsias, earthy golds and yellows, sky blues and aquamarines.”
Color Blocks
As heir to both the Western avant-garde and the Chinese scholarly tradition, Chu Teh-chun revolutionized the representation of landscapes and opened the way to a new kind of abstract painting. Although his work made huge strides starting in 1960, with an expressive vocabulary focusing on colored lines, it was only after the 1990s that these began to turn into planes and blocks of color. His paintings from the turn of the new millennium share a common characteristic: an open, atmospheric composition made up of large blocks and smaller patches of color, making play with light. Initially dark and monotonous, his palette became lighter, livelier and more brilliant. The brushstrokes became broader and more rapid, making the colors more transparent and watery, and sometimes creating dripping or running effects. “His use of wrist and gesture arises from the breathing of the universe, and his paintings are in harmony with the landscape, using both strong and soft colors, with flaming reds and fuchsias, earthy golds and yellows, sky blues and aquamarines,” wrote the famous art critic Pierre Cabane in 1993. That says it all.
TABLEAUX MOBILIER & OBJETS D’ART
Monday 02 December 2024 – 14:00 (CET) – Live
Salle 9 – Hôtel Drouot – 75009 Paris
Tessier & Sarrou et Associés
