The works of Chu’s early French period, therefore, are not so much landscapes as they are experiments with the abstract-expressionist style popular in the West during this period, which served as a background to Chinese calligraphy brushstrokes that make up the foreground of these canvases.
The early 1960s saw Chu gradually moving away from De Stael’s geometric influences and finding a style all his own. In another sound decision by the curators, the exhibits’ explanations of the works spend little space analyzing Chu’s growing popularity. At the time Chu was receiving invitations to show his work at a number of international exhibitions, a situation that continues to the present day but one the curators chose not to belabor.
Having gained proficiency in abstract landscape painting, Chu began traveling the globe and applying his unique technique, which one might call “abstract expressionism with Chinese characteristics,” to paint some of the world’s most well-known natural sites. These landscapes comprise most of the rest of the exhibition, with each providing a clue to Chu’s feelings about the place. During this time Chu was studying Song Dynasty and Tang Dynasty poetry, which was beginning to influence on his aesthetic sensibility.
Of particular note are his series of paintings of the French Alps. On a trip across France in the mid 1980s, Chu saw the Alps in the distance and was immediately stuck by their timeless beauty.
The result: a series of large tempestuous canvases of fine white specks with flurries of brushstrokes imitating the flow of snow in winter. Black continues to be Chu’s color of choice to represent form, with twigs and trees practically jumping off the canvas.
Chu’s latter abstract period still employs the somber colors of his earlier abstract palette, but with the addition of pastel flourishes.
To help museumgoers gain a better understanding of Chu’s influences, the curators also display some of his cursive calligraphy and Chinese ink paintings, completing a splendid explication of the oeuvre of an abstract expressionist who combines a modern Western style with the aesthetic traditions of the East.
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