Chu Teh-Chun, Chinese Abstract Painter, 1920–2014

Chu Teh-Chun, an Chinese abstract painter based in France, died on March 26, according to Sina. Born in 1920, Chu studied at the Hangzhou National College of Art in the 1930s, and moved to France in 1955. There, he was inspired to shift from traditional Chinese landscape painting to more stylized abstract work.

After gaining recognition in France during the late-1950s, Chu became internationally known thanks to his inclusion in the Carnegie Art Museum‘s 1964 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, and his participation in the São Paulo Biennial in 1969. He would return to his roots in the 1970s, incorporating elements of Chinese calligraphy into his work. The National Museum of Art, Taipei, held a retrospective of his work in 1987.

Chu’s work has also been exhibited at the Musee d’Art Contemporain, Dunkerque, France (1991); the Shanghai Art Museum, China (2005); and the Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo (2007), among other institutions.