Lot 1411: TENG-HIOK CHIU

TENG-HIOK CHIU
(CHOU TING-HSU, 1903-1972)
Summer Isles, Scotland
signed 'Teng H. Chiu' in Pinyin; dated '37' (lower left)
oil on canvas
62 x 84 cm. (24 3/8 x 33 in.)
Painted in 1937

Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.
Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto.
Knoedler Gallery, New York.
Allan Lyman Art Museum, New London, Connecticut.
City Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri.
Municipal Art Gallery, Dayton, Ohio

Private Collection, USA

Born in Gulang Yu, Xiamen, Teng-hiok Chiu was admitted to the School of Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to learn painting in 1921 and became the first foreigner to be granted the membership of Royal Society of British Artists in 1926. He was an active participant in art circles in Europe and the US from the 1920s to the 1950s. The experience of traveling around the world instilled in the artist the belief that art is a universal language that is beyond nation boundaries. Chiu is able to capture and depict natural landscape and scenes that are easily being forgotten with his strong ability of perceiving senses. Viewers can peacefully scrutinize the pond in the garden and the reflection of the architecture on the tranquil and mirror-like surface of the pond in Garden Pond (Lot 1412). Harmonious and light colours represent the tranquility of the nature. The jars around the pond situated on the right, the left and at the middle of the canvas give the painting a balanced composition. The two painted doves add vitality to the painting.

Summer Isles, Scotland (Lot 1411) is a later work by Teng-hiok Chiu which was widely exhibited in public in 1944 and was honored by Allied Artists of America in New York. Under the influence of Orphism, which emphasized the "simultaneous contrast of colours" and "pure colours", this painting is realistic yet abstract. The delicate brushstrokes, the geometric forms, the harmonious palette, as well as the intensity of the hues that Chiu employed help model the objects. The multiplicity of colours makes the painting decorative and ever-changing to look at. The unique change in colour is like the change in spectrum; Chiu tries to use a new framework to illustrate natural daylight on a two-dimensional canvas and presents time as part of the painting's composition. It enhances the dynamics and rhythm of the painting and shows the vitality of a city and the tranquility of the country-side. Although Summer Isles, Scotland was painted in the style of Western oil painting, it emanates the spiritual and lyrical feelings that Chinese art pursues of. The creation of Teng-hiok Chiu presents the most beautiful sides of the world of nature, as when a small piece of literature gives people warmth.