Movie ‘CHU TEH-CHUN’ | MoMA

The sceening of the documentary ‘CHU TEH-CHUN’ is a collaboration with Arte Institute and the Foundation CHU Teh-Chun.

This film invites viewers to discover the story of CHU Teh-Chun, a major figure in lyrical abstraction modernist art. Tracing his personal and artistic journey from his birth in a turmoil-ridden China at the beginning of the last century, to his rise and recognition in France, including his induction into the prestigious Académie Française in Paris in 1997. This documentary reveals the artist’s unique style through a combination of creative staging, fiction and reality, dreamlike landscapes, artworks and archive images, interspersed with previously unpublished quotes and conversations.

In his traditional Chinese paintings, CHU Teh-Chun interpreted his thoughts and emotions through classic forms depicting the harmony between man and nature. However as a result of his move to Paris in 1955, he escaped formal symbolism, enriching his palette with an immense variety of nuances and becoming a master of the art of combining colours and integrating light into his paintings.

Acclaimed for integrating traditional Chinese painting with Western abstract art in his own unique style, CHU pushed the boundaries between the real and the unreal in an exquisite blend of painting, music and poetry. In 1997, he was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Paris, the first French citizen of Chinese descent to be chosen for the honour. “He is the only painter of his generation to have reachedso far in his search to create a symbiosis of his two cultures” said François Cheng, poet, essayist, novelist and a friend of CHU.

A prolific artist, he has produced more than 2,500 oils on canvas, works on paper, washes, calligraphy and ceramics.