Since the late 1980s, Chu Teh-I (曲德義) has been developing a unique style of abstract art characterized by geometric patterns and splashes of colors which call attention to the intense contrast between cold rationality and raw emotions.
Colors/Forms (形形色色), a retrospective exhibition currently on view at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung, surveys his ideas and work of abstract painting over the last two decades.
Whereas Chu’s earlier work was characterized by meticulous and disciplined composition, his later paintings possess a deliberately formless style characterized by interweaving patterns of abstract shapes and colors. The carefully-placed blocks of colors and intense, wild scribbled lines reflects a combination of personal, intuitive-creative experience with a deep understanding of Western abstract art. In these paintings, the boundaries between the rational and the subjective, the warm and the cold dissolve in the clashes and rearrangement of colors, shapes and lines, reaching a new-found harmonious state.
Photo courtesy of Kuandu Museum and NTMOFA
The exhibition features close to 50 of Chu’s paintings and provides a close-up view of the artist’s decades-long exploration and experimentation of forms and colors, revealing a world behind the seemingly spontaneous lines and bold colors that is built up through rational contemplation as well as spiritual introspection.
■ National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung (國立台灣美術館), 2, Wucyuan W Rd Sec 1, Greater Taichung (台中市五權西路一段2號), tel: (04) 2372-3552. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm
■ Until June 2
Photo courtesy of Kuandu Museum and NTMOFA
Photo courtesy of Kuandu Museum and NTMOFA
Photo courtesy of Kuandu Museum and NTMOFA
Photo courtesy of Kuandu Museum and NTMOFA
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