Chu Teh-Chun

Emigrating to France in the middle of the last century, CHU Teh-Chun (1920-2014) left a significant mark on abstract painting and Chinese art, synthesizing the two pictorial traditions.

A student of Lin Fengmian, Chu studied traditional Chinese painting but was also exposed to Western art, notably during his training at the Hangzhou School of Fine Arts in China, which he began at the age of fifteen.

After moving to Paris in the 1950s, he abandoned figuration in favor of a gestural, abstract style that harks back to the Chinese traditions of calligraphy and landscape painting. Although his work is influenced by the stylistic liberties of mid-twentieth-century movements such as Art Informel and Abstract Expressionism, Chu has always retained the technical rigor he learned as a student in mainland China, integrating it into his pictorial gesture.

A retrospective of CHU Teh-Chun's work is held at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini from April 20 to June 30, 2024, to coincide with the sixtieth edition of the Venice Biennale of International Art.

Watch a video presentation of this exhibition curated by Matthieu Poirier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnDxt7YbONY