“The Autumn Color beside the Lake” by Lin Fengmian

NEARLY 800 artworks ranging from ancient ink-wash paintings and calligraphy to ancient porcelain and jadeware will go under the hammer at the 2014 Hosane Spring Auction at Shanghai Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Thursday.

One of the auction’s highlights is the painting, “Eclatant Ruissellement,” created by Chu Teh-chun in 2004.

Chu was a Chinese-French abstract painter acclaimed for his pioneering style integrating traditional Chinese painting techniques with Western abstract art.

Chu and his schoolmates, Wu Guanzhong and Zao Wou-ki, were dubbed the “Three Musketeers” of modernist Chinese artists trained in both China and France.

On March 26, Chu died in Paris at the age of 93. Wu died in 2010 and Zao in 2013.

Chu was the first Chinese member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts of France.

Other highlights include two paintings created by Lin Fengmian (1900-1991).

Lin was widely considered a pioneer of modern Chinese painting for blending Chinese and Western styles. He was also an important innovator in the area of Chinese art education.

He spent the early years of his career in Europe, moving to France in 1920 and studying painting in France.

In 1925 he returned to China, where he became principal of Beiping State Vocational Art School.

Lin’s life was tinged by tragedies. Many of his early works were destroyed by Japanese soldiers during the Chinese War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), while many of his later works were destroyed during the “cultural revolution” (1966-76).

After being heavily criticized and denounced during the “cultural revolution,” Lin destroyed some of his own works by flushing them down a toilet. He was still imprisoned for more than four years.

In 1977, he was allowed to leave China on the assumption he would reunite with his family in Brazil. He instead headed for Hong Kong, where he remained until his death in 1991.

Preview

Date: June 24-25, 9am-7pm

Auction:

Date: June 26, 9am

Address: 4/F, Shanghai Portman Ritz-Carlton, 1376 Nanjing Rd W.