Chu Teh-Chun : In Nebula

Born into a family of art lovers, Chu Teh-Chun (1920-2014) is a major figure in gestural abstract painting. He endured the Sino-Japanese war, family tragedies, the virtual disappearance of his early works and then exile - in 1949 to Taiwan and in 1955 to Paris, where he finally settled. It was in this peaceful setting that his stormy abstraction of nebulae and polychrome maelstroms, shaped by powerful chiaroscuro effects, was born.

Nourished by both classical and modern painting, Asian and Western, Chu was for a long time somewhat on the fringes of his time, perhaps because of his reserved personality and his principled rejection of any commercial strategy.

Published in the light of historical hindsight and the current success of Chu Teh-Chun's work, this monograph qualifies some of the aesthetic issues of the Chinese artist and helps to dispel certain misunderstandings that may have surrounded the reception of his work.